I had really been trying to figure out what my first public blog post should be about, and today, my daughter unknowingly wrote it on my heart. I had been in a bit of a funk because of, well, just “stuff’ that I was dealing with. I was doing some work on the computer and had asked the children to play quietly while I tried to get over a pounding headache. Then my daughter came and joined me. Now, of my five children, this daughter – my second-born child – has presented the most emotional challenges for us recently. She’s the one for whom I’ve had to send up the most “knee mail” (prayers) in recent months. So whenever she spontaneously initiates dialogue with me, I try to fully engage and respond honestly, but carefully.

While working in her scrapbook, she asked me to look at something she had added. I did, and complemented her on her choice – it was a really bright, colorful, somewhat abstract picture of a person with a big, curly afro with lots of pictures of “thoughts” in the hair. Beautiful picture; kind of made me think of all the things floating around in my head. After I put the scrapbook down, she asked me, “Did you even see it?” “Yes,” I said, “Did you not hear me telling you how pretty and bright it was?” “I heard you, but what about the other picture, the one with the scripture by it?” What other picture? I was thinking as I opened the scrapbook back up, And with a scripture?!

On the preceding page, was a much more subtle picture of eyes – kind of sad-looking eyes. Next to them, my daughter had cut out and glued the words: “So smile”. I felt myself smiling as I thought about her gift for noticing subtle statements in pictures, and artful messages that others may miss. Then I looked towards the top of the page and saw where she had written, “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. Job 8:21”. My eyes began to fill with tears as I realized what I had almost missed. My baby – the one who had expressed the most unhappiness recently; the one who has the least to say after a message at Church, or after our family devotions at home, the one for whom I had been crying out to God the most – had used one of her most treasured activities to creatively communicate her awareness of the Origin of joy – our Creator. Just blew me away, and I let her know just how blown away I was. I had been distracted by the bright, colorful, attention-grabbing picture, and without my daughter’s prompting to look again and see the REAL treasure, I would have missed out on one of the most authentically beautiful moments – a God moment. I am humbled, and immensely thankful.