Gifts from Children

At a recent family church night, 5-year old Rachel danced into my life. She gave me a small banner created at Christian Day Camp. Since she's of kindergarten age I remarked, "A long, long time ago I taught Kindergarten."

I've done volunteering in a program created by former teachers at a school near my retirement center. I met Meg and Sarah in the library. Their teacher asked me to engage them in conversation, "They need to be more verbal." Meg told me that her mother promised $50 if she didn't watch TV.

My response, "My Mother never tells me, "Don't watch TV."

"No, that's because you are old."

I wonder if there is a way to bridge this age gap that divides us? Many years ago I taught a church school curriculum which addressed this question. But many said, "That's not Christian Education."

Love As a Bridge

Four year old Kristin asked me as we sat munching cookies at the kitchen counter, "Would you be my grandmother?"

When I answered "Yes", she giggled, clapped her hands and informed me, "Now I have three grandmothers, Gram Marie, you and great gram Katy, but she's dead."

What an awesome request to be someone special in a child's life. Grandmothering is a time for listening to words I hardly had time to hear from my own children.

Katy prepared for bed after a full day of gram-granddaughter activities. As I kissed her goodnight she said, "Gram you are a good baby sitter."

"Why do you say that, I asked."

"Because you love me."

I need to tell her again in her teenage years how she filled a Gram's day to overflowing. I prayed, "Lord, you are a great God because you love me. You have been with me and instructed and healed me through the words of children."

Adaline's book, While It Was Still Dark, conveys her encounter with separation & loss in a succession of sharply limned images. She doesn't discourse about grief, she evokes its many moods.