Candelighters

Last night a friend asked me if I was going to be helping out at Candy Cane Lane this morning. I didn’t think I had time. With papers and finals and whatever else there is in my life… I just thought I’d be too overwelmed if I gave up the time. However, I woke up at 8 this morning. I had two choices… I could either go back to bed and sleep until noon or I could get up and go serve. I convinced myself I could make a better use of the time God gave me.

It’s strange how life works sometimes… you think you’re going to go help impact someone else’s life and then you end up being impacted more. When I got to the volunteer sign in they asked what I wanted to help out with and I said “oh I don’t know…. where do you need the most help?” Really I was thinking, “Just don’t put me with the kids.” I was assigned the job of a greeter for families who would be arriving on campus and I was told not to hangout in the activity room too much. I thought it was the perfect job for me.

But then they didn’t need me in that area so they asked me if I would hangout in the JC… with the children. For a while I felt kind of akward. I tend to talk too adult for children at times… I don’t want them to think that I am talking down to them. Which is strange… because that’s what you do with children, so they can better understand and relate to you. The first child I came in contact with was a little boy. He was so exicted to be able to make Snowman soup. I thought… this is kind of fun. I could see the suprise and joy in his eyes. Next I played a game of scrabble with the kids… I lost :).

It was strange how they slowly started to grow on me. I’ve always been good with children. I’m not sure why. I’ve never really liked ADMITTING to liking them though.  However, if children are going to keep impacting my life then it’s going to become impossible to deny that I actually like them. When I was fifteen it was Sara, a little girl I counseled at outdoor camp; when I was sixteen it was Safia, a little jewish girl I counseled at day camp; when I was seventeen it was Jacquline at VBS in Mexico; and today it was Dakota (cody).

One minute I was wandering around the JC and the next I was meeting a new family. Oddly enough I eagerly went to greet them. First I met the dad. I explained to him what everything was, where they could go pick up presents for their children and where the activities were. Next two big brown eyes were looking up at me shyly. I immediatly took her tiny little hand. We played with green playdough and colored gingerbread men and watched tv, she got her picture taken with Santa and we danced in circles. She smiled and giggled as she gulfed down her piece of cheese pizza and I smiled and laughed with her as we talked about animals and pizza and music.

I spent the rest of the day with Cody. At one time she got up from coloring, walked over to her brother and shared a  napkin with him, I could see how much she loved her family. And when one of her family members came up and shared with me that Cody didn’t take well to people and that she had really taken well to me, I was shocked. They told me that “Cody really must like you because she just doesn’t interact with people like that.” I was honored. We played together for just a short while and she stole my heart.

Then I talked to her dad again and he showed me pictures of her before her cancer, showed me pictures of her brother and sister and their family. He shared a couple stories with me and I learned a little about them. My heart sunk. I felt such love for this family, this family that I hardly knew. This is what I have been praying for… to love others like they are no different from those whom I hold close to me, to love especially strangers. This was an answer to my prayer. And Cody, Cody taught me about life. Her joy and contentment with even the simplest things only sunk into my heart as I sat with her, as she shared her life with me and as she blessed me.