Monday, August 1, 2011

Muddles Can Become Masterpieces

Of course it would happen that my last post would be cynical of me finding inspiration in my children for my daily post; but alas, today's post is exactly what I was so skeptical about--inspired by my oldest son, Evan.

We all make mistakes; misplace things; forget things.

I took the boys to our local grocery store last week and had the brilliant idea of bringing the iTouch with us so that Evan could be entertained. It was a 2 for 1 when I snagged one of the grocery carts with the built-in car that kids can "drive." Surely, I thought, this was going to be an easy in and out trip.

Sure enough, things went splendidly. We stopped at the bakery for our cookies and then I made my way around the store picking up the few items that I needed.

As I was in the check-out line, I noticed that Evan had placed the iTouch on the seat next to him. I made a mental note not to forget it when we unpacked the cart.

Because of the boys excellent behavior, and my craving for something chocolate, I awarded the boys with a bag of M&Ms. Really, more for me than them, but you know.

We made our way back to the car and I unloaded the groceries and then the boys, still having my mental note of not forgetting the iTouch; however, I got sidetracked as moms often do and had to deal with a slight outburst from Oliver, my youngest. Never mind the influx of people that flock to the area that I live for vacation. The parking lot was full and people were squeezing into the parking spots on either side of me.

I jumped into the car and ripped open the King Size bag of M&Ms and began dishing them out with the AC blasting. It was a hot one. Then, of course, the M&Ms spilled all under my seat as I was turning to place them in the eager little hands behind me. Back out of the car I go to clean up the mess to avoid the future chocolate melting I would find at a later date.

Needless to say, you can get the picture that I had long forgotten the precious iTouch that we had come to rely on to entertain our energetic 3-year-old on plane flights and trips to the store from time to time.

The week went on and suddenly it hit me, this past weekend, that I had no idea where the iTouch went when I realized that I had forgotten about my 10 Words with Friends games that were awaiting my response. Eeek! I freaked and searched the house frantically.

Diaper bag? No. Purse? No. Car? No. I could not for the life of me remember where it had  gone. Then suddenly, as I was up late one night working on the budget, I remember Evan having it in the cart at the grocery store.

My heart pounded. What a mess! A muddled mess! They were expensive. How were we going to replace it? We had personal information on there!

It was way too late to call the store, so I had a sleepless night before me. I got up in the morning and called first thing. Just as I thought, no one had turned it in. I left my name and number with little hope.

Later that morning, I explained to Evan that we had lost the iTouch.

"On, no! Mommy, we losssssst the iTouch-ch-ch!" he cried, and cried, and cried. He's a dramatic one.

I knelt down next to him and said that we could pray that someone would be nice and find it and turn it in and send it back to us. So he prayed, every day, "God, please find the iTouch."

Simple and to the point, I couldn't help but be sad that the chances of someone turning it in were slim to none.

Then it happened. I got a call this morning after spending an hour last night with Ryan changing all of our passwords and double checking that we hadn't been hacked. A man from NH was on vacation with his family and found the iTouch in the parking lot. The battery was dead, so his kids brought it home and had the adapter to plug it in.

He told me that his 8-year-old knew where to look for contact information on it and found my phone number. I was thrilled, to say the least, and then disappointed with myself that my faith had been so small that Evan's little prayer for the iTouch wouldn't matter much at all.

I got off the phone and told him that a nice family had found the iTouch and would be mailing it back. He jumped up and down and then stopped and said in all seriousness, "Mommy, did Jesus find the iTouch in heaven?"

I told him, "Well, maybe he didn't find it in heaven, but he brought someone nice to find it for you and return it."

As I watched him continue to jump up and down and be excited for the wonderful news, I was reminded of how the faith of a child is so incredible. They have no doubt that something will happen. At what age in life do we stop having the faith of a child?

Is it life's circumstances that skew our views and faith? We become doubters, and I have become just that.

This little life lesson that turned a muddle into a "masterpiece," was a big reminder that even the small things in life matter to God and that He wants us to come to Him with all things, great or small. He just longs for a relationship.

To look on my son's face and see the joy he had for an answered prayer, no matter how small to me, was an inspiration. So much so, that I wrote this terribly long post for all of you to read.

I'm looking forward to more muddled masterpieces. I can tell you that much!

1 comment:

  1. What a wonderfully inspiring post! When I started reading, I never thought it would end that way! Beautiful, Kell. Just beautiful.

    Keep writing!

    ReplyDelete