When A Kid Is An Angel

I know how kids can be. Particularly little kids. I nannied for 4 years for an infant and a growing 3 year-old who became a 4 year-old who... Understandably and I could objectively argue, these two kiddoes where, probably, the most well-behaved tots I know of. Heck, they rarely were embarrassing in public (what I have always believed to be a good thermometer of how cool a kid is). One of the two kids responded to discipline (pretty good odds, I'd say. That's 50%) They always ate the food I made them and rarely complained about having to finish their "whole" plate. They were athletic. Witty. Photogenic. Good dressers (they picked out their outfit each morning and whether they were two or five they always came up with stylish combos.)

BUT while they were kids to brag about, they, like any child, had a little devil in them. There was always the bedtime hour when they wouldn't go to sleep until ALL five books were read and even then, they got up for water and the bathroom ten times over two hours. And, the baby, she had colic (monitor was put in my room when I lived with them). They didn't poop in manageable little turds but in a messiest of rainbow shades. They splashed water ALL over the bathroom each evening during "bath time". And, I occasionally had to send the neighborhood kids home because my kids were being mean and hitting other children. They were periodically, in need of AA. Otherwise known of when you're five as an "Attitude Adjustment".

While I still babysit every now and then, it's been awhile since I've been around two + kids for a consistent, extended period of time. So, I suppose that means that when I am now around kids, I mentally tend toward turning them into angelic beings. Their smiles...their innocence...their simple lives...These things perhaps turns the age of five, in my imagination, into a grand utopia and their every behavior (good or bad) is simply "cute".

While I'll acknowledge my tendency, for today the five year-old will retain his/her angel-ness in my mind. You see...

It was a tough day at work (enough said), when this 5 year-old child, off from school because of some stomach ailment, came into the Sunshine office with his mother, who needed to make some photocopies. He was shy. And wore blue, plastic sunglasses. (Hey, the glare of the florescent lights makes sunglasses handy.) I asked him his name and his age. And with one hand over his mouth and a slight, shy tilt of his body away from me, he answered.

His Mom and I talked for a few moments about how she'd heard about our center. About their late night run to the E.R. because of his stomach aches and how she took him out of school and took off work herself because their stay lingered on until the wee-hours of this morning. She made her copies. In between her copies and my encouragement to return back to Sunshine for our adult technology classes and open access to computer with Internet, the little kid interrupted.

He looked at me and said, "You know, you're really pretty."

Kids can be charmers, I know. Especially little boys. But, in that moment, with me (internally) bumming about my day and counting the minutes until I could go home, those were the warmest, most encouraging words I could be told. It was his innocence, the simplicity of childhood, that made those words all the better. They were raw. No hidden agenda. No date to gain. No need to woo. No favor to be had. No status to gain. No popularity contest to win. None of the manipulative reasons we assume almost inheretly as part of adulthood. I didn't have to question his sincerity. None of it.

So, I don't know if it's faltery if it comes from a kindergartener but, I do recall Jesus allowing the little children (which I like to think of as kindergarteners) sit on his lap after a long day of teaching - a day, I can only imagine was bummy. And, I can only imagine that the simplicity of their lives, the potential they held, the innocence in their eyes is something that soothed a man undoubtedly deeply affected by the pain of this world. And while we know He had gentle words for them (and a lesson in faith for the adults around Him to learn in it), I have to think they had a few profound words of encouragement for the man too.