A day at the park.

Last week I enjoyed a day at the park with a couple of wonderful kids. We started out at the playground. There were several other children there with what appeared to be a group of moms and kids the same age, basically wearing the same clothes and driving the same cars. You get the picture. My kids were happily running around and after a minute or two became the center of some unfriendly attention. The mommy club wasn't comfortable with the sweet overtures of a ten year old child with me that day. She extended her hand toward a smaller child to say hello and the child drew back and began to cry which initiated a hostile comment from her mother. My little friend, M, is both functionally blind and deaf. She is here on a medical visa from a desperately poor country and staying with a missionary couple I know. We've been enjoying the blessing of her company while they are at work during the day. She is delightful, unable to communicate through speech and very dark with an infectious giggle. The other child with me that day was my four year old Son, B. He is strong and bold, his face is beautifully asian and his heart is soft toward M. "C'mon." B says as he takes M's wrist and leads her on to the next slide. He makes sure he uses the ramps and then he puts her hands onto the ladder rungs. She trusts him and begins to climb feeling him behind her. When they reach the top she feels for the boundaries of the slides edge the way she has learned to, then she rights herself in position and lets go. B. cheers her very loudly with hopes that she hears him somewhat, "Good Job!" He notices that people are staring and talking to each other. B. gets so much attention when out with his caucasian family that he wears a baseball cap so that he can pull it down like Charlie Daniels when people look at him too long. He calls out, "Mamma, Can we go now?"

We went. We went to a nearby store and bought several kites for one dollar a piece and two big bottle of bubbles, then we went back to the park where I knew of a wide open field where M could run far and free without anything in her way. Where B. could relax away from prying eyes. We had a picnic of peanut butter and jelly, mandarin oranges and a couple bottles of water and we had the BEST time together alone. I thought a lot about God's love for us that day. It seemed the parables were everywhere you know? When B. got his kite up it would soar then it would dive and crash... then it would soar again. The more B. let it go the higher it flew unencumbered by the weight on the ground. I released my anger toward those click-y moms and their sheltered princess kids. God filled me with compassion for them and assured me that his love for them provided my love for them. I watched little M. run barefoot in the grass laughing and constantly getting tangled up in her kite. B. lost two kites to trees when he lost his grip on the string handle.

We blew bubbles and the wind blew and blew! I was reminded in the joy of these children that whenever we can't cope with what crowds us and judges us... God has a field for us. His grace opens wide and his sky covers us, the wind reminds me of the words of Jesus, "You can't tell where the wind comes from or where it goes. It's like that with everyone that is born of the spirit." There was a field of grace for those two precious children who personify God's heart to save all who are lost and separated. We can run there, we can be safe there and we can rejoice there. With God. Together alone.