Saturday, February 04, 2006

Boy with Sucker

On Thursday, I took my mother to a medical clinic to get a flu shot. A young Hispanic woman was coming in behind us, with her two beautiful toddlers, a boy and a girl who were both busily (and messily) working on red suckers. They grinned at me shyly and moved a little closer to their mother.

I helped Mother get into a chair in the waiting room, leaving her wheelchair nearby for a minute. While I was waiting to talk to the receptionist, I became aware of some pressure on the back of my legs. I turned around, and saw that the little boy had pushed Mother’s wheelchair right up behind me.

His drippy sucker was in his mouth, and his sticky hands were on the handles of the wheelchair; I could see his big amazed brown eyes over the back of the chair. He grinned at me. His sucker fell out of his mouth onto the floor. Not the least bit disturbed, he bent right over, picked it up, and stuck it back into his mouth. Not a problem. Then he hurried back to his mother, who put her arm around his shoulders and spoke softly to him in Spanish. He smiled, nodded, and wiped off some of the red stuff just before it dripped.

Children who know they are loved have faith that things are going to turn out right. They know who is in control, and they are glad it is not them. Maybe that’s a lesson we could learn?

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