In Spite of Me
Curled up on the bed together, we were having our last Book Time before school. There were a lot of "lasts" that week. Last Pool Day Before School. Last Chuck E. Cheese Outing Before School. Last Lunch with Nana Before School.
This was the last Last. Because Hurricane Fay delayed us for two days, we'd had to stay home from a friend's goodbye party to ensure a quiet night with a routine, on-time bedtime before the Big Show. I'd been teary for a couple of weeks...all these Lasts were starting to get to me.
The stack of books that night was larger than usual, me trying to delay the inevitable: that I was going to have to put my preschooler to bed and in the morning, she would wake up a Kindergartener. My list of reservations was long. How long before she would come home a card-carrying member of Kids for Weapons in Schools (KWIS) or the Jesus Who? club?
I pulled out a book about a snowman that, curiously, had an inscription in the front that said something like "This book is dedicated to the snowman that lives inside every child's heart." I read that part aloud and made a funny face.
Eden, whose sense of the bizarre is highly developed, answered with a funny, quizzical face of her own and said:
"Snowman in your heart? What? No. Jesus in your heart."
And, wiping yet another tear away, I knew that she was going to be okay. She was ready.
Further Proof...
A couple weeks into school, I got an email from a teacher at the school, who happens to be one of my best friends (and my greatest informer!) I've changed the names - Eden's in "Jones'" class. It said:
My favorite part about that story is that I knew nothing about it. She never said anything about a girl in a wheelchair. We didn't coach her into anything, and she didn't think twice about that act of friendship being extraordinary. She just saw someone sitting by herself and reached out. Now, she looks forward to seeing "Angela", and the teachers make special arrangements for the girls to be together if recess doesn't work out.
So what am I learning? That, in spite of me, Jesus is at work in my little girl, and my little girl is at work in her (public) school.
This was the last Last. Because Hurricane Fay delayed us for two days, we'd had to stay home from a friend's goodbye party to ensure a quiet night with a routine, on-time bedtime before the Big Show. I'd been teary for a couple of weeks...all these Lasts were starting to get to me.
The stack of books that night was larger than usual, me trying to delay the inevitable: that I was going to have to put my preschooler to bed and in the morning, she would wake up a Kindergartener. My list of reservations was long. How long before she would come home a card-carrying member of Kids for Weapons in Schools (KWIS) or the Jesus Who? club?
I pulled out a book about a snowman that, curiously, had an inscription in the front that said something like "This book is dedicated to the snowman that lives inside every child's heart." I read that part aloud and made a funny face.
Eden, whose sense of the bizarre is highly developed, answered with a funny, quizzical face of her own and said:
"Snowman in your heart? What? No. Jesus in your heart."
And, wiping yet another tear away, I knew that she was going to be okay. She was ready.
Further Proof...
A couple weeks into school, I got an email from a teacher at the school, who happens to be one of my best friends (and my greatest informer!) I've changed the names - Eden's in "Jones'" class. It said:
I heard the sweetest story about Eden yesterday. Jones and Smith's class go out to recess together. Smith has a girl that has Cerebral Palsy in her room (in a wheelchair). Smith told me that the girl was very shy and would just sit by herself and then one day she heard her giggling and talking to another girl. Of course that girl was Eden. So every day Eden has been chatting and joking with her at recess and they have become friends. Smith said that the girl (I think her name is Angela or something) has really been coming out of her shell. She has been asking to bring outside toys to recess (just like the other kids). All because your compassionate daughter saw a girl by herself who was "different" and befriended her!! You should be proud. If nothing else, God has already used Eden at this school to show compassion to someone who needed it!
My favorite part about that story is that I knew nothing about it. She never said anything about a girl in a wheelchair. We didn't coach her into anything, and she didn't think twice about that act of friendship being extraordinary. She just saw someone sitting by herself and reached out. Now, she looks forward to seeing "Angela", and the teachers make special arrangements for the girls to be together if recess doesn't work out.
So what am I learning? That, in spite of me, Jesus is at work in my little girl, and my little girl is at work in her (public) school.
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