Dear reader, we have a tradition in our home of gathering together before bedtime to have a family prayer. It usually occurs after I've read a story and recited a favorite poem, and the mood is happy, united, and warm.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I should also note there are many evenings when bedtime does not avail itself to such harmony, when there is exasperation, fatigue, and children who cannot seem to pull off the simple task of brushing teeth if their lives depended upon it.
At any rate, it was Caroline's turn to pray last night. I love listening to my children pray...it's like downloading their innermost thoughts, it's like seeing the world through their eyes. Caroline, in particular, prays over a litany of people, places, and concerns.
At one point she brought up a homeless man she had seen the week before. She asked God to help him find something to eat and drink that evening. And then she said, "If he has to lay down on the street to sleep tonight...please make it feel to him as if he's in a bed."
I don't know, dear reader. Something I love about life is how differently we approach it, how the various perspectives of others help me to appreciate a greater landscape than I would navigate on my own, how their influence helps me to see more clearly a way of looking at things that is meaningful to me.
Listening to Caroline's prayer last night was like that. It wasn't some naive, childish recitation...it was like pausing to consider some of the true sorrows of the world, and not being afraid to look at them when one's heart is filled with love.