Cardboard Oven: A Beautiful, 'Impossible' Reality

[This week I preached a sermon on Matt 11:28-30, where Jesus beckons all who are weary to come and find rest in him, and to bear his yoke, for it is easy and light (find my sermon notes here). I have some more thoughts about yoking and bearing burdens...]

There is a picture given to us by one of Emily's friend in Central America, of a woman throwing her head back in pure laughing joy. In the background is a mound of trashing filling the frame. It's a beautiful picture, seeing the joy amidst so much trash. And yet, it's hard to catch her contagious laughter without filling a twinge of irony and guilt.

Too often in this economically developed, individually-minded American culture, we focus too much on the "yoke" and "burden" part rather than the "easy" and "light" part. When I was in East Africa, Ecuador and Central America, I saw many women carrying huge loads of firewood on their backs. (Yes, it was always women - if it were men, they'd have a donkey to carry it for them.) It's a "woman's job" since gathering firewood was for domestic (and usually not commercial/business) use, and the household is the woman's domain (traditionally in many societies).

So for many poor, especially women, society weighs on them both figuratively and literally, whereas we rich tend to be more afraid of losing our individual freedom. Which is why I found this invention of a cardboard oven to be utterly amazing.

Flabbergasted, I read the article where a man in Kenya created this $5 invention with his daughters. Mass production is now planned out of factories in Nairobi. The article ended with these wonderful words: "I don't want to see another 80-year-old woman carrying 20 kilos of firewood on her back. Maybe we don't have to."

Simple is Beautiful.

I now look at this picture on the wall, and I'm able to laugh heartily with this woman, filled with a real hope in relieving at least one of her burdens.