And Jesus saith unto them, Yea: did ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has perfected praise? -Matthew 21:16 b (NASB)
Such a wonderful verse. It speaks volumes. To a parent, I find it perhaps a bit more profound.
This year, I made a fruit cake. My own recipe. Had no experience. Just made one. I am quite familiar with the reputations that fruit cakes have. I just knew what I would want in one and did it. It ended up tasting great. Jen didn't like it as much as she doesn't care for fruit in cake (to her credit, she did eat a piece).
I ate a bit myself and decided to bring a bit back to Nebraska this weekend so my mom could try a piece. She ended up liking it. This morning, after lunch and before we returned home, I asked Esther if she would like a piece. She said that she would. I was amazed. I was amazed even more when she had a bite and she said that she liked it. I was even more dumbfounded when she said that she wanted more. I was flabbergasted when I gave her a fig from the cake, she ate it, and she declared that she wanted even more.
As a quick aside, Esther has perhaps the pickiest appetite that I've ever seen. For real. While she will eat most fruits, pastas, and practically all desserts, she doesn't like most meats and vegetables. Not only doesn't she like them. She won't taste them. Not once. If she does, she will chew for about 10 seconds, pretend to gag, and spit it out. Basically, she won't eat something if it looks gross to her. What looks gross to her? We have no idea. It's impossible to know until we find out.
Keeping this in mind, I was fully expecting that she would declare that she had no desire to eat a piece of what is roundly considered to be the most vile and disgusting food known to man (myself, I personally like fruit cake, when it's mine, but I already wrote about that). She ended up sucking down an entire piece and wanted more. I hope I had burned away all the alcohol while cooking the cake. Surely I did. Right?
What I seek to communicate with this is that children will surprise us. Constantly. Assuming anything about little kids is often an error. Though I knew that this morning, I hadn't taken it into account. I learned more this afternoon.
Our trip home from Lincoln to Cedar Rapids is about 5 hours long. It IS a safe assumption that a 5 hour trip with a one year old and an 'almost' three year old is a bit long. We usually stop at a halfway point. We paused at Adair on our way to Lincoln this time. Des Moines on the way back. We just wanted to have a little snack so we went to an Italian restaurant whose name currently escapes me. It's close to Adventureland, beside a frozen custard store, was awesome, and I would totally recommend it. But that's not the story.
When the waitress brought out the bill, Esther wanted to talk to her. However, she walked away without even acknowleging Esther. Esther was a little hurt. Jen and I asked her what she wanted to tell her. She said that she wanted to tell the waitress that 'we are going to heaven after we die'. I was a bit shocked but didn't refute her and tell her that: 'we don't discuss such things in public, certainly not with strangers'. I just decided to discuss it with Jen later.
When we were in the car, Jen and I talked about it. She had the same pause that I did when she heard Esther say that. We both then agreed that, though we would probably not be so bold in our Faith (as that IS what it is), we would not discourage Esther from doing it. Heck, I wish that I could be such a shining light for Christ.
While discussing this, we were listening to a CD that Esther received for Christmas and absolutely loves. It is a collection of Bible songs. The song that came on after we finished the discussion was This Little Light of Mine. I have sung this song probably 1000 times (or more) in my life. We were struck by the lyrics. "This little light of mine. I'm gonna let it shine." and later "Hide it under a bushel? NO! I'm gonna let it shine." It is so simple, yet says so much. It was, at that time, speaking about our daughter. Awesome? You better believe it! I ended up grinning from ear to ear. It was truly great to realize how wonderfully God shines through our daughter.
We'll not try to hinder Him from doing what He does best.
Because it's truly fun when children shock you. It's doubly so when they're doing it for the Lord.
Can't wait to see her shock us again. Also can't wait to see when Cynthia gets old enough to do likewise.
Awesome!
May God bless you all.
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