Today I was reminded why I (mostly) stay at home full-time with my kiddos. Not that these moments don't happen for families whose parents work full-time. I simply do not have my stuff together enough for these moments to happen when I'm very busy. I require stretches of downtime - full days in sweat pants and children in pjs - to seize moments like this. So tonight, I'm full to the brim with gratitude for my circumstances.
We spent a good hour playing with our nativity sets this morning.
Something about those teeny hands holding that teeny Jesus so carefully, yet with such confidence and purpose reached my soul.
Sage was always careful that Mary and Joseph were nearby, and often cuddled the baby who was "kyyyying".
River took apart the puzzles and creshes repeatedly, patiently determined that each piece fit in its own way, just where it should.
And they played at it together like pros - with great compromise - sometimes side by side in their own worlds and sometimes fitting pieces of different scenes together.
I know it was just plain a morning of carpet time together.
But it was more. It really was.
Sage, may you always find your family close when you need them to be.
May you nurture the Jesuses around you like you nurtured that teeny Jesus.
May you know that Jesus does cry.
He also dances and yells and sings and dreams and gives and laughs.
Buzz, may you find the pieces that you need to puzzle together a deep, hearty understanding of Jesus.
May you, like today, find great challenge and little frustration in having to work hard to make the pieces fit.
May you both find fragments of understanding of Jesus from all corners of this world - from people who think differently than you, love differently than you, eat differently than you, sing differently than you. And from people who are exactly like you.
May you always be comfortable in pulling your faith from imperfect and mismatched places.
May you play side-by-side with each other always.
And may you know - with the same quiet confidence with which you played today - that YOU rest securely in GOD'S hand.
