Frozen Corn and Servanthood

It's funny how "little" things can be such a big deal . . .

A friend and I are doing a babysitting swap - one week she has my kids for a morning, and the next week I have her 2 youngest, who are both 18 months like Kari Bou. This morning it was my turn to watch her kids.

The morning went great, but lunchtime, no matter what, can get a little chaotic, and was especially so today since I had promised Rach & Zekers we would have cheese & chicken quesadillas, which require some cooking and chopping.

While I was getting everything ready the kiddos had decided to make a "path" through the kitchen and around the perimeter of the dining room, using pretty much every towel and dish cloth we own, as well as most of the placemats. (If you ever eat dinner at our house, consider this fair warning; I tired long ago of washing every cloth item that hits the floor. I figure Kari Bou spends enough time licking the floor to keep it somewhat clean anyway.)

I turned around to see that Zekers had managed to open the freezer door (our fridge and freezer are side-by-side), and Kari Bou, who misses no opportunity to wreak havoc, had made a beeline for the shelf where I keep the frozen veggies. Last week I had opened a package of corn so I could use a little in some soup, and (will I never learn?) had just folded the edge of the bag under instead of fastening it securely.

You can guess what happened. Before I could do anything, she had dumped the entire bag of corn all over the kitchen floor, and stood there with an impish "now what are you gonna do about it" look on her face. There was nothing for it but to get down on my hands and knees and begin scooping up handfuls of corn into a bowl, since it was too much to sweep up at first.

Next thing I know, Rach is beside me, scooping up corn with both hands. We're talking about the child who stalls and tries every tactic in the book to avoid cleaning up her own messes, let alone here sister's! "Sweetie!" I excaimed, not sure where this new attitude was coming from. "Thank you for helping to clean up all this corn. That's really great!"

"Well, I'm just being a servant," came the reply. I stopped and looked at her, almost beyond words. "Where did you learn about being a servant?"

"When we went to Mr. & Mrs. Reifsnider's church the Sunday School teacher told us we need to be servants." I asked her if she could think of anyone in the Bible who was a servant. "Jesus," she answered. Enough said. (By the way, we went to the Reifsniders' church about 2 months ago!)

It is fascinating to me how random Bible stories and Bible verses Rach has learned suddenly find application at completely unexplainable moments. And her attitude was just so sweet and sincere. It actually made me glad Kari Bou had dumped all the corn, allowing me to catch this glimplse of my oldest daughter trying to be a little more like Christ (although I'm not sure she fully understands the concept.)

Rachel also informed me that for the rest of the day, whenever I tell her she can't do something, she's just going to respond with "OK." I guess if one miracle can happen, why not 2?