Nathanael had a little cough, so we took him to the doctor. The visit went really well and the doctor prescribed him with an antibiotic for a little ear infection. After our doctor visit, JD dropped Nathanael and I off at the hair salon and JD went to the pharmacy to wait on little man's prescription. There was a bit of a wait for us as well. While sitting in the salon waiting area, I tried to read a magazine article while watching Nathanael inch closer and closer to the shampoo display. He knew not to touch it, so he would hold his hands as close to the bottles as possible and glance back at me, as if he was saying,"Im not touching it! I'm still not touching it!" At this point, you choose your battles. I ignored the fact that he was being a little booger and continued reading the article. After a while of waiting, a gentleman walked into the salon. The door bells jingled and Nathanael, who had his back to the door, whispered,"Daddy?" Nathanael turned around and looked at the man standing in the door way. I was sitting to the left of the man and Nathanael was standing to the right of him. As a mother, I fully expected my child, after looking at this man, to state the obvious saying something like,"Nooooo, silly! That's not my Daddy!" But no. My son looks at this gentleman, then looks at me and says loudly,"Mommy! Is this my Daddy?!"
I just sat there speechless, waiting for my child to follow it up with,"Nooooo!" But he didn't. He just looked back at me, giving the appearance that he was a poor fatherless child on a search for his daddy. The man's face went blank. His gaze went from Nathanael to straight ahead. He pursed his lips, turned around slowly and left the salon without looking back. You know that moment, when you know what the people around you must be thinking but there's nothing you can say that will make it better? Thanks to Nathanael, I do now.
On a really good day, when I manage to restrain my awkwardness, I can always count on my child to keep me humble.
Still, I'm thankful for the lessons learned from our little ones. Just the sound of the door bells made my child excited and hopeful that his Daddy was walking in behind him. It makes me think about the moments when I should be that excited about the presence of "Daddy God": To wait with excitement and anticipation, to spend a moment with the King of Kings, Looking forward to a moment on my knees, so that I can commune with the One who knows me more than I know myself. To be like a child who waits for his Daddy.
"Therefore whoever humbled himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:4
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