Today our daughter came home with an owl project of Thankfulness that she did at school. It was sort of a rough day as she is still trying to get the hang of school and everything it entails. The learning level is one that she isn't used to. She has went to more schools than she can count. Last week she left her folder at school two days in a row, so we had lots of homework to get done.
She worked diligently on her vocabulary and Geography. We reviewed her spelling words, then did a Chapter 4 Math Test Review. I was growing weary with it all, but as I was going through everything else in her folder, I found this owl picture. I took a moment to read it. It said:
Dear Parents,
What I am thankful for is a roof over my head.
I am thankful for food so I can eat.
I am also thankful for the toys you give us.
I am really thankful for you.
I love you so much.
I don't need toys, I just need you.
I asked her who this was for (she just came to live with us twelve days ago). She said with a big smile, "It's for you and daddy!" As I hugged her tightly, I couldn't help but feel my heart overflow. Overflow with joy, happiness, love, hurt, compassion, sadness, completeness.
My birth children if asked would definitely say they are thankful for food and a home and parents. They hear far too often how blessed that makes us! But, there is something different about R's letter to us. Hers is set apart from what most of us would feel when we say we are thankful for food and a roof over our head. You see, she lived without those necessities. She lived at times with no roof over her head, with no food to eat, with no parents to care for her.
When she wrote, "I don't need toys, I just need you" she meant it. She truly knows that toys are fun, but she really just needs parents to love and care for her. Her thankfulness is deeper - It's realer - It's who she is. It is a deepness that I hope I have when I thank God for the simple things.
When Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me" he said that because their faith is one that we all should have. Because a child's perspective is one that we can all learn from. They may not get adult understanding, but they get what's important. With the life she has been dealt so far, she would have the right to be angry, but her heart is so full of compassion, love, and understanding.
I encourage you to join with me to have a deeper thanks this season. To really put yourself in another's situation and really feel what they feel. When we pray to God and thank Him for His unfailing love, mean it, truly mean it!
"But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." ~2 Corinthians 12:9-10
