Glimpses of Him

Warning: this post may be very chaotic.

We had a field trip today. It's my third day, and we have a field trip. The older kids were taking the TAKS test, hence the purpose of our adventure.

S.T.R.E.S.S.

The funny thing is, I wasn't worried about losing a child.... I was worried about parents watching me do something that I was extremely new at. This young, fresh teacher who is in charge of their children for 7 hours, 5 days out of the week.

blah.

This job is hard. That's really all that I can say right now. I don't really have the energy to say much else, other than i'm only one woman. i'm human. i'm not perfect. And for a girl who is extremely hard on herself that feels really good to admit.

While we were at Gators and Friends today one of the parent volunteers pointed out something that i'd never heard before.

The kids were standing at the fence eager to feed the donkeys as she asked this question, "Do you see what's on their backs? What shape is that?"

I leaned over to get a look myself.

"It's a cross."

Immediately I thought of the passage in the bible where Jesus is making his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. He rode in on a donkey.

I don't know if it's true that it's the exact kind of donkey that He rode in on and that He forever marked it with His cross, but I do know that I felt extremely close to Him in that moment. As I stood there staring at that donkey and the dark brown cross on His back, I thought about the reality of Jesus. The reality that He came in human form to this Earth.

I needed that. Right there. At gators and friends.

Around 2:00 in the afternoon as we were getting ready to load the buses and head back to school, I was gathering everything and putting it in my backpack. One of the students was leaning over talking to me with a cup full of animal food... and yes, you guessed it.... it all went pouring into my backpack. Tiny little drops of stinky animal food.... all in my backpack.

When I got to the bottom of my bag there was a cross that some child had given me at vacation bible school last summer.

What a nice, sweet, little reminder. haha. In a moment when I could have completely lost it.... there in the midst of tiny droplets of gator food was the cross of Jesus Christ.

Twice in one day.

I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord; no tender voice like Thine can peace afford. I need thee. Oh, I need Thee; every hour I need Thee. Bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.