Pasta Love

While in Arizona we went to church with the Cavas, and I put Nina Kate in the nursery for the first time in over a year (our church doesn't have one).  She was so enamored with the toys and crayons her brain could not focus on my departure even though I tried repeatedly to explain that Mama was going to church and she was going to stay and play.  When I returned an hour later it was evident by her recovering gasps of air that she had mourned my absence with a good hard cry, but she was smiling, wearing a new necklace made of yarn and ziti noodles and playing with pasta on the table with the leaders.  They handed me a story and Bible verse and told me she had made the necklace for me.  The story was about Christ's gift to us and a little girl who made necklaces in response to the realization that God wants us to give to others just as Christ did.  I thanked the class leaders and brought her into the sanctuary for the end of the service.

As I held her in my lap and sang the final song she completely surprised me.  She took the necklace off her head and tried with all her might to slip it over mine.  Nina Kate wears necklaces almost every day all day and she has never put them on me before.  So I knew instantly that she had understood the Sunday school leaders lesson, that this necklace was to be given away.  It was my first gift from my children, and I'm sure to most of you out there it sounds completely ridiculous to be so touched by some pasta on a piece of yarn, but I know that for this Mama it was one of the tenderest of moments and I will treasure it always.