He’s been watching me.
At four-and-a-half, Canyon is well beyond toddler-hood, and has tried & tested his boundaries. Most of our ‘basic training’ is behind him, so spankings are few & far between, and with his particular tender spirit, he is quickly motivated by praise, encouragement & positive affirmation. He is finally at that sweet point of wanting to emulate Daddy & please Mommy. It is one of my favorite ages.
It’s a turning point for most kids; they are becoming self-aware, learning cause & effect, and watching, watching the behavior & response of people around them.
Of course it’s also the point where the scribbling of a toddler has morphed into cute drawings of donut-wheeled racecars, fat-winged butterflies, and my favorite: the stick-figure family. You know what I mean... “These are da clouds, here’s our house, see, with da butterflies...and there’s sissy, and Daddy, and me...and you, Mommy!”
Canyon has begun quite a collection of family portraits for me. He comes to me again & again, folded paper in hand – pulling on my shirt when I’m in the kitchen, whispering at my side while I’m nursing the baby, or excitedly putting his newest creation across my keyboard. Don’t tell Canyon, but we all know the parental secret: despite how thrilled we are with each precious creation, only a few qualify as keepers. We all have different top-secret methods of disposal, but in our home, the discarded pages get tucked down into the ‘burn basket’ – along with newspaper, cardboard, junk mail & other great scraps for fireplace kindling.
I got a keeper the other day. It wasn’t the symmetry of the spindly Aspen leaves that impressed me, or the nicely rounded puffs of cloud...it was his stick-figure depiction of Mommy that brought tears to my eyes.
“This is a tree, Mommy, just a regular tree...and this one is an Aspen, see with the leaves turning yellow...and the sun is shining yellow too, and there's lotsa grass...and that’s you, Mommy, with your arms up in the air, like you do ‘cause its so beautiful!”
No, its not like I throw my arms in the air every time we have a pretty day outside...but there are moments, maybe out on a hike, when God’s glory is so resplendent in the summer sunshine or the glowing autumn leaves...and I have to stop & breathe it all in, and worship the Creator.
My son has been watching me. And amidst his pre-school-replications of racecars and trees, he created a Mommy portrait. Of all the mundane things he sees me do...cooking, laundry, driving, cleaning, nagging...he captured a moment where perhaps God is glorified in my life, where just maybe he gets a glimpse of the best of who I am.
It’s definitely a keeper. Taped on the wall to remind me, as I go about the busyness of my day-to-day, there are seven little people watching Mommy.
