GOD WAS IN AN UNFORESEEN FRIEND
Psalm 127:3-4 “Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.” (NKJV)
A year after my father’s fall and news of my parents divorce, I entered the second grade. I was academically advanced, so I was placed in a combination second-third grade class. The third graders sat in the front of the class, taking up the first few rows while the second graders sat in the back. I immediately developed a crush on one particular third grade boy. He sat in the first row of the classroom, middle seat.
The children in our classroom had developed the habit of playing through recess without using the restroom. Then, we would all take turns, getting out of doing our work by going to the restroom during class. Within a few weeks, my teacher instituted a new rule, use the restroom at recess only!
One of my teacher’s favorite learning activities was to have each child stand before the class and read a paragraph from a book. I was a good reader, a faster reader but I was also a shy child and my home life was very difficult around this time. Most of the time, I felt broken and afraid. My mother had just filed for divorce from my biological father and I had witnessed his horrible accident the year prior. As a result, I felt out of place and friendless.
On the day it was my turn to read in front of the class, I played through recess. When I returned to class that day, I approached my teacher and asked for the hall pass. She politely reminded me that I was supposed to use the restroom during my break. Then she instructed me to head to the front of the room and begin to read. It was my turn!
I walked, nervously to the front of the room and stood approximately three feet facing the boy I had set my heart on. I began to read.
I felt my face and chest beginning to get hot with heat rash, as they always did when I was nervous. Then I began to hear laughing and looked up to see the children pointing their fingers at me with smiles on their faces. I looked down to see a puddle below me. My white striped seventies hipster pants were now yellow and my socks were all wet. My teacher came to the front of the room and put her arm around my shoulder. She walked me outside and told me I could wait for my mother on the playground jungle gym structure.
Outside, I felt safe, embarrassed, but safe. I sat on the jungle gym and patiently waited for my mother to bring a change of clothes. I don’t remember my mother arriving, the clothes I changed into or if I even left school for the rest of the day, but I do remember the next two weeks of school and how God was there in my teacher and classmates.
I would have figured the teasing would have continued, but it didn’t. My teacher was especially compassionate as though guilt overwhelmed her. Even the boy I liked seemed to smile at me more often. I couldn’t imagine why they were being so nice to me. Then, the Lord sent me an angel.
It was about two weeks after I had my accident in class that a new student entered our classroom. She was tall, at least a head above all of the boys and she had snow white hair. Even her eyebrows were white. I hadn’t seen white hair on a child before only blond, so I was captivated by her glow. On her first day, the new second grade girl wore a white dress, knee length with a frilly lace bottom. Her socks were folded over to reveal a frilly lace rim that matched her dress. Her shoes were also white, polished and shiny enough to reflect the light. I felt like I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. The teacher had positioned her directly in front of me in line and in the next row over in the class. She stood out so much that I remember her playing alone during the first recess.
I am sure why the teacher called the new child at the front of the class to read, before all of the students, on her very first day. The child’s face was red like mine was. She began to read and within seconds, had an accident. My heart filled with mercy and compassion because while everyone else could only see what had happened, I could feel her pain inside. Then something amazing happened, my embarrassment from my own accident quickly disappeared. The teacher asked me to wait with the girl as her parents arrived with a change of clothes.
During the time we spent alone, I discovered we had much in common. We became best friends that year. We playing during every recess together and we reminded each other to use the restroom during recess.
My new best-friend didn’t attend our school the following year. I wasn’t told what had happened and I would never see or speak to her again. Still, throughout my life, I would remember her friendship fondly.
Still, until God opened my eyes, I didn’t know the true purpose of that relationship. These days, I see second grade a little differently. I know now, God was by my side during a season of my life that offered many trials. He didn’t allow me to bare that embarrassment alone. Miraculously, a classroom of seven and eight-year-olds
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