There's no way to explain all of it because there's just too much.
I agreed to teach Sunday School at church this past Sunday weeks ago.
Before Spring Break and before anyone could know my dear friend's mother would pass away.
The days leading up to Sunday were busy with funeral food and details and preparations and standing all day in wedge sandals that pinched my pinkie toes blue.
I was super weary going into that classroom
Sunday morning.
We talked about David and how he wrote so many of the Psalms.
Did you know Moses wrote some too?
Anyway, we talked about how the word Psalm means "book of praises" and how many were written to be sung.
Our youth pastor typed out some of the Psalms for the kids to choose to use to decorate their treasure boxes along with tissue paper, foam sheets, stickers, markers and construction paper.
They could put things on and in their boxes that they want to treasure up. Keep.
The kids went right to work.
One girl handed me a marker and a piece of scrap paper and asked me write Jesus on it.
I did.
She told me, with SO MUCH enthusiasm that she was going to write Jesus SO BIG on her treasure box.
Then she started singing a made up song
about how much she loved Jesus
and how he is worthy to be trusted
and is her strength.
She asked with a giggle if I heard her song.
I told her I did.
She said it was her Psalm.
I asked her how old she was.
She said she'd turn 8 in April.
8 years old!
I was totally done in by this 8-year-old.
I found out later how hard her life is.
A lot of disappointment.
Way different than mine at 7 going on 8.
Yet she sang her own praises to God and wrote Jesus's name SO BIG on her treasure box.
We talked about what we are thankful for and another girl looked me right in the face and said,
"Love."
Then we talked about movies and they strongly urged me to see "Trolls" even though it's
"a bit scary but it's okay because it winds up good at the end."
They also told me to see "Sing" even though it's
"a little sad."
And we all agreed how good "Moana" is.
When I told them how I caught Monte listening to the Moana soundtrack all by myself in the kitchen eating his breakfast the other morning the little girl with Jesus SO BIG on her treasure box said,
"That is so sad! You should listen to it with him!
No one should listen to music alone!"
I don't know if she was still referring to the Psalms or not but I went home and told Monte.
I also thought of my own treasure box and the praises I'd fill it with like love and laughter and joy in the midst of sorrow.
I thought of a line from a Chance the Rapper song I saw him sing on an award show,
"God is better than the world's best thing.
God is better than the best thing the world has to offer."
I thought of how things in this life are scary and sad but we know the ending of the bigger story and to quote my little friends in Sunday School Class,
"it winds up good in the end."
I thought of how I read in Ephesians 5 in the Message that "Thanksgiving is our dialect."
Gratitude should be our accent.
In a season where I can barely catch my breath,
and it seems like life is dealing a very hard hand to the people I love,
this little girl in my Sunday School class
with the distinct drawl of thankfulness,
reminded me of all my treasures.
