I often have the opportunity to enjoy lunch at school with my daughter Kendall. What that actually means is…I go to lunch and recess with Kendall, and all the other 1st and 2nd graders in the school. Sounds like a party doesn’t it?!
Things are pretty crazy during lunch, but they’re off the charts for recess…
On my last few visits we spent recess playing Monster Tag…and yes I’m the monster. Kendall starts the game by running away from me as soon as we walk onto the playground, I respond to her running away by getting my Frankenstein on and pursuing. Then four and five kids at a time join her to help protect her from me. At the same time my support builds as a few children choose to help me tag kids and send them to my lair. You can imagine a playground full of 1st and 2nd graders running from monster me to avoid getting tagged. It gets pretty crazy! The playground monitors just watch, smile, and thank me for keeping the kids occupied during recess…I really do enjoy it though.
When recess is over all the kids thank me for playing, then Kendall and I hold hands as I walk her to her classroom. During my last visit as I was leaving, I told the kids in her class that I was so thankful that my daughter Kendall was in a class with so many good kids, and that I thought they were all really great!. As I started to walk away a little boy who is always trying really hard for acceptance, and who also gets into lots of trouble grabbed my hand and looked at me with hope in his eyes and asked…me too?! I looked at him and said, you’re a great kid and I’d pick you anytime! At that a huge smile broke across his face, then he pumped his fist in the air, and said YES! With that I smiled at Kendall and left with a much better understanding of how God feels when he looks at me…and it makes me want to pump my fist too.
Thanks for reading…