As a young woman, I worked my way through college as a teacher at a small Christian School. One morning shortly after arriving at work, the teacher who worked across the hall from me shrieked, “That ruined my whole day!” Before I could think, the words escaped my lips, “What ruined your whole day?” “Sota, he’s taken his snack, this “jello-jiggler”, and thrown it on the floor. Before I got a chance to stop him, he’d stomped on it and squashed it all over the place!” Her words sounded thick and her face was drawn up like she had just bitten into a piece of rotten fruit. I glanced over at the child, this “jello-jiggler” offender who stood next to the evidence of his deviant behavior. His hands were folded behind him, and his dark Japanese eyes were looking sideways out the window. I followed the path of his gaze and I saw a bird there. I don’t know what kind of bird it was, bit it sat proudly and gracefully on the windowsill. The child and I stood united in our vision when the teacher’s icy tone slapped us back to reality. “Clean it up now!” she snapped at the boy. Again I looked at the child. He was five-years old and had arrived in this country only three months earlier. My heart immediately went out to him as I could only imagine how overwhelmed and disoriented he must have felt. As he approached the crime scene, armed with wet paper towels, he looked at me and grinned. At first I thought I was mistaken. But I am positive I saw it. His eyes twinkled while his lips grinned. He looked so adorable that I couldn’t help laughing out loud. I realized that as young as he was, he had the wisdom and the insight to look at us, the situation and even the bird and see the humor and beauty in it all. So the child and I stood united once again in our vision and our laughter. As I left the room that day, I vividly remember looking at the clock. It was 9:12 a.m. If that teacher’s entire day had been ruined she still had about 16 miserably hours to go before it was over. She allowed one squashed “jello-jiggler” to cause sixteen unhappy hours. I believe we choose how we are going to respond to all the splendor and turmoil God allows His Children to experience. And I can only hope that none of us ever sees a day when we fail to notice a beautiful, mysterious bird or the mischievous twinkle in a little boy’s eye. “Unless you are faithful in small matters, you won’t be faithful in large ones.” Luke 16:10 Belinda Cohen, Tags: inspirational, hope, inspire, love, religious, Joy Related PostsPost a comment
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