Who Are These Little People?

Back in the day, I'm pretty sure the only requirement for a kindergarten education was to show up clothed and mostly awake. That was the limit of the mother's, and in a few cases father's, responsibility. After the kid was in the classroom the teacher took over for the four hours or so of the kindergarten day. I took a short trip to the grocery store this morning to get the cats a can of food and what should be in the checkout line but a special notice for the Julesburg Grade School. There is a list of supplies the little people need to provide for themselves to attend school. School is bad enough without a requirement for supplies too.

The school wants either the list or the supplies, or perhaps the kids, put in a safe place, the instructions are not clear on that, and I like the comic effect of the ellipses at the end of the request, "Please put in a safe place...." The school apparently spent its supply money on I-Pads, because this is quite a list for a kindergartner, and it ends with "Earphones (for I-Pad). Adults are not allowed scissors on a plane flight, but children in schools are required to have them. The question must come when reading the lists: Who are these little people? I cannot believe that I was allowed to just show up to the school as a kid. Was my education substandard? Good grief!

This morning, I wondered what sort of a list God might give to you or me at the start of a Christian life. Would it be some large amount of money to be earned at toil because the inflation figures we hear on the news is, well, fudged just a little? The new Christian will need five jobs, he will lose four of them; two complete sets of furniture; you don't want to know what happens to the first set; and a complete selection of clothes in increasing sizes because, um, this seems to happen a lot more these days. No, maybe the list would be oriented toward the spiritual growth. The Christian will need this much tribulation to grow her faith; a larger amount of waiting on God to learn patience and trust; and a few train car loads of encouragement because this life is just plain tough for the Christian. No, not that either. I think that God gives us a list that says: a day.

What? A day? Yes, as in "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!" We get a day, today in fact, to learn and grow in the love of God. The worries of today are enough for this day; we are not to worry about tomorrow or borrow imaginary worries from the weeks and months to come. Today may be a waiting on the Lord day. Nothing that we call significant may appear to happen on this day. The Lord may see much of great significance happening in your waiting day, but His vision is a lot better than yours or mine. This may be a busy day that goes by before we can stop to take a deep breath. An event so life-changing that even in our poor vision of eternity we call it of great significance may happen today too.

Who are these little people? They are little versions of you and me with a somewhat different set of circumstances to grow up in. Each of us has today, a gift from the Lord. Let us rejoice and be glad!

Bucky