Well I gassed up for the first time yesterday. 11 days on half a tank of gas I think is pretty good. I figure if I can keep up this pace I could save over $150 bucks on gas in 40 days. Not too shabby. That would be close to $1500 over a year. Craziness.
Yesterday, I had someone tell me something I've never heard before. There are two little neighborhood girls that come play under my Magnolia trees. They are huge trees. I don't know exactly what they do but they leave a bunch of their toys and clutter strewn about. I don't mind. They are 8 and 9 years old and very friendly. Sometimes they come ask to borrow things. Sometimes they just need a band aid or some random little trifle. They are always a trip. Evidently they were in the mud yesterday, because they were nasty dirty! After helping them identify some of there scrapes where they had evidently fallen out of the tree the 8 year old says......."You are like a dad to me." What? ....did she say "You are like a dad to me?" Now I know what comes from the mouth of an 8 year old must be taken with a grain of salt. Its just......little girl.....I don't know you that well.....and you don't know me.....I could be a crazy person. Am I nice to them? Sure. Do they make me laugh? Of course. But daddy? So I decided to ask some more questions to find out why she would think a nice man she barely knows would be like her daddy.
I got the gist pretty quick that she has already had several step dads and maybe even some foster ones.........No wonder...... at 8 years old she couldn't know all of them that well if at all. They asked me what I did and when I said I was a minister....their faces went blank...."What's that?" (They guessed doctor and truck driver bye the way). "Well a minister is a person who works for a church" I said. The light bulb went on. They knew what a church was even though I could tell they never went (I know church is not a place).
This got me thinking about perceptions. The way I was seen by an 8 year old was completely foreign and diametrically different than how I saw myself. I wondered if God's perspective of my personage is that much different than mine? It wouldn't surprise me.
Outside my window I can see Cardinals, Goldfinches, a red bellied woodpecker, and various other birds. Bright colors. Beautiful colors. I wonder why it took me so long to appreciate them? Was I so caught up in all the bustle of life that I never noticed? Me now sees these things. Me 10-15 years ago .....not so much.....Its amazing how a little time changes the way we see. I hope my little 8 year old friend can one day know what its like to have a father who loves her in yellows and blues and greens. I hope her transformed perception will reveal her daddy as he should be. When Jesus cries "abba" it is not to one of many "step" dads. Its a cry to his eternal "daddy" who plays, protects, and kisses to make it better.
Well said, Dr. Vaden.
ReplyDelete