It's not just a bookmark. I know from the outside that's what it looks like, but trust me, it's far more. I've had it for well over a decade and use it daily. It was given to me on the very first day of a trip to Guatemala, by a young girl and her grandmother who made it by hand. It's constructed of colorful yarn woven over a piece of thin cardboard. It even has tassels at one end that help keep it from sliding down into the pages. While functionally, its ability to keep track of what page I'm on is solid, it's true purpose is to remind me daily of the power of giving and gratitude.
We had been working in that village for a while, and the year prior, we had built them a house. They previously had been living in a corrugated metal box, held up by wood posts fashioned out of tree limbs, with a dirt floor, a mix of branches and metal for a roof and dirty cotton sheets acting as interior walls. Now they had a concrete block house, a watertight roof, safety for their family, dignity and a healthy place to move forward. When they heard we were coming back again, they wanted to say thank you. The look of pride and joy on their faces as they met me stepping off of the old yellow school bus that brought us into the village of Las Conchas was heart melting. They beamed with thankfulness, grabbed my hand to show me how they’ve cared for their home and the gifts they had been preparing for me. The memory humbles me to this day as I see that bookmark as a reminder of how much God loves us and calls us to abundant generosity and thankfulness.