The little girl on the shuttle bus to Epcot was melting down. The mother was frantically trying to divert the certain stereophonic disaster.
Just minutes before, the toddler had been happily pointing to every tree and bush and shouting out ,"Cow!". Then she would squinch her face so that her upper lip touched her nose and bellow ,"Moo!". Asherel and I, sitting nearby, chuckled each time she pointed at cows none of us saw and mooed.
"She must have dreamed about cows," said her dad.
But happiness can be a fleeting spark, easily extinguished. The bus grew crowded and the mother gathered the cow dreamer onto her lap to make
room for others. And that is what brought us to this moment, with a little girl melting into a distraught and inconsolable puddle on her mother's lap. She wanted her own seat back.
Grandma offered her candy, Daddy offered her a book, Mommy jiggled her. The cow dreamer was stiffening her body into an inflexible board, albeit a cute one in her little pink princess dress. The cries tumbling out of her were less endearing.
Suddenly, my purpose for existing was realized. I pulled out my iPod and quickly sketched a cow and then turned it towards the shrieking child.
"What's this?" I asked.
The little girls sobs were stilled mid shriek and her eyes opened wide.
"Cow!" she exclaimed, delighted.
"What does a cow say?" I asked.
"Moo!" she said happily, and smiled as she took the candy her daddy offered her.
The lost seat was forgotten and the joys of being a child returned.
I have dreams too. I don't recall dreaming of cows but I dreamed of being a famous artist one day. It does not look like that day will come anymore, except perhaps in the eyes of a 2 year old and maybe that will be enough.
I guess we don't always know what we are being prepared for.
Sometimes it will be great things and sometimes very small things.
I think true contentment hinges on not caring which it is.....a Mona Lisa that hangs in a museum or a sketch of a moo cow that gladdens a child for a moment.
Esther 4:14 (NIV)
For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"
- Nothing is impossible with God
- hollowcreekfarm.org
I have been thinking about Eric Lindell and how he said "When I run, I feel His pleasure." We could think that something like running is meaningless or too little to bring glory to our Creator--many, including his sister, thought Lindell's great accomplishment for God was being a missionary. I think it is our own pride that makes us want to do "big" things for God when He sees the simplest, smallest acts of selfless serving of others as huge acts of love that do change the world and last for eternity.
ReplyDeleteI love that comment by Lidell- it is so wondrous to feel God's pleasure in using the gifts He gave us.
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