A Reminder...

This past Sunday, I had a very interesting comment from a little 7 yr old girl at our church. I have simply loved this child from the time that her and her parents started coming to our church a few years ago....some kids are just like that...there's just something about them. At first, I thought she was a child with some learning disabilities but in working with her I found out that she's like a mini Einstein...just brilliant but with little idiosyncrasies that make it a little difficult to work with...almost like some autistic tendencies.....she has 'blown me away' a few times with the comments that she's come out with or the things that she could remember. In Sunday school, her mom is her teacher and this past Sunday Grace was having difficulty focusing and staying calm and not speaking out, in her class. Her mom brought her out, just as I was coming along so Grace came back with me to the Sunday school office. At first I didn't know quite what I should do...after all her mom/teacher had already spoken to her...I didn't want her to just 'sit there'.....so I asked if she wanted to colour. She did, so I gave her a colouring book and markers and she started working away....I told her that she could do that for awhile but then she'd have to go back to the class room. (I didn't want this to become and every week occurrence) After a little while, I said 'Grace.....I think that you should go back now....do you think you can go and be a helper to mommy now?'......she said 'what do you mean?'...I explained that when she talks out like that that it's setting a bad example for the rest of the kids and that mommy needs her to be a good example, to help her. Grace said...'does she still love me?'....I reassured her and said of course.....just because you do something that isn't a good thing doesn't mean that mommy doesn't love you. So, she did go back to the class and she did behave.

It got me to thinking..you see Grace is adopted...her parents went over to Russia when she was little and brought her home. This is not unusual for an adopted child to wonder if their parents will still love them if they've done something wrong. An adopted parent doesn't ever have to say or indicate in any way that their love will cease for that child for an adopted child to wonder if that will ever happen...they just do...sometimes they even test you numerous times to see if you will ever stop loving them.....
It reminds me of our relationship with God...we are all adopted into his family when we make the decision to follow him.....there are times when we do things that we know He is not pleased with,...there are times that He allows somethings to happen in our lives that we wonder..'if He truly loves me and cares for me then He would never have let that happen to me'.....but just like Grace and her mom.....it doesn't matter what we've done or what we think that God has or hasn't done for us....He always loves us......Grace's mom will always love her...that's what moms do, no matter what their kids do.....sometimes as parents, we have to step back and let our kids stumble, let them experience the consequences of their choices...just like God does.....He still loves us..but He gives us choices......

Grace is a pretty neat kid....I'm glad I know her...I'm glad she gave me a little reminder about Gods' love...we all need reminders sometimes.