Ring, Ring, Ring!

Awww! I hope it's not those kids again. But outloud, I say, "Let's see who's out here!" pick up the house intercom receiver up here on the third floor and say in a feigned sick voice, "Hhhello..." Yo and who speaks but a little voice, "Is Jessica there?" then, "Can you come down?" I'm like, "Sure," and pitter plop down the stairs keeping the lights out so I can see them first. I switch the entry mudroom lights on though before opening the door to make sure not to scare them though. They're two little girls. Yikes they're small. I don't think Jess has students this small. "I can call Jess for you." Yes, they would like that. "Would you like to come in?"

Striding up the stairs now to retrieve my cell phone, I say passing Josh that Jess's students are looking for her, then rush back down. It's amazing. They haven't just come into the mudroom. They're at the base of the stairs and it's nearly all dark. They're brave. I skip down to chase them back trying to awaken my lost senses of school-aged fun, and hear their screams and laughter are light and not boisterous. I'm dialing Jess. "Who should I tell her is looking for her?" I ask the two little girls. "Esther," with eyes that question, "Me?" and "Her, she's Cindy," with the same squirmy confidence that found them all the way to the stairwell earlier. "So are you Jessica's students? What grades are you in?" They're cute. "But Jessica doesn't teach 3rd and 2nd grade." Oh I see. They've seen her and she gave them cookies once, so now they know her.

Well, I'm amazed now. Josh is downstairs. And I've already made up my mind, almost, to play with these kids. For once. Or again rather. Playing seems like a thing of last year, before the hurt, before the denial, before the conflicting voices came and offered a way out. I can't believe Josh is here with me and we're ministering to new kids, together, playing UNO, teaching, watching - it's a new day. It reminds me of what we prayed yesterday. Josh and I in fact. God's mercies are new every morning. And if we hold it in, we don't have a new day with new people and new events. But may His mercies and love flow through us anew each day so that every moment is fresh and new. I believe it. And it reminds me of what I daydreamed yesterday after talking with Beks about team members finding time to do something together. Us sitting at the playground, the one tucked in a neighborhood with the swings, and two little girls coming to play and us inviting them to play with us. And showing Christ's love to kids we haven't met yet. Being able to serve together and not just each team member in our own individual corners. And this exile in Taiwan coming alive anew. People becoming strangers that I am curious to know again. The world waking. That was the thought that passed my mind yesterday. Since then, I've given the thought of serving together as I envisioned it to God. But then this. Josh. You might not know what this all meant to me. It's God becoming my life again.

Maybe this is just a corner of our prayers and dreams. A corner come to my house. Come because, and to my house because - I gave my house to God.

Ring, Ring, Ring! We've come.