Monday, September 21, 2015

Two-Way Blessings

September 21, 2015

Blessings are a two way street. We had invited to our home a young couple with four children under the age of four, to spend the day, hopefully relax a little. A four-year old, two year old and two one year olds (more or less) require a lot of attention. It's not a matter of behavior; theirs was stellar. But they are preschool, and like all preschoolers, they are busy and keep their parents busy. I don't know how this young mother handles all four of them day in and day out while her husband is at work, but she does, and does so with calm grace. Linda and I each took turns with one or the other, hopefully giving her a bit of a rest, besides just talking about life. Like most young parents we know, they were concerned lest their children break something, but there's not much here that they can destroy, and even if they did, it's only stuff. We have lots of kid stuff here, and at the end of the day, everything is intact.

I watched the four year old jump on the trampoline, taught him how to pump the swings so he could do it himself, then went wading in the creek. Immediately after warning him about the slippery rocks, his feet went out from under him and he sat down in the water. From then on, it didn't really matter how wet he got, so we just kept playing in the creek. Fortunately his mom had brought a change of clothes for him. I got to hold the babies and play with the toddler, who unlike most two year olds, was not in the least afraid of this man she'd never even seen before. Her smile was almost constant, and lit up her entire face.

What we intended as a blessing for this couple was in fact, far more of a blessing to us. I'm not one given much to this kind of language, but these children were adorable! I had some projects planned for the day, and managed to finish one of them, but the other will wait till tomorrow. I had more important, more interesting, and more fun things to do today. Tonight I'm thankful for the pleasure these children gave me today. What would have otherwise been an ordinary day turned out to be extra special in the hands of four pre-school children whose innocence and guilelessness filled our day with a glimpse of Christ. Truly, little children led the way today!

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