Oatmeal Moments

Kate Ware, Flickr

Who taught you how to make oatmeal?" Katherynn asks. "Are we going to have walnuts and raisins in it? I like brown sugar in mine. I don't think I want apples in it today. Is that cinnamon? Because I like cinnamon. Do you like stirring oatmeal? It looks fun."

She watches as I stir oatmeal, memorizing my motions as if I were creating a gourmet meal rather than a simple breakfast.

 A child is a sponge, soaking in love and savoring life, one moment at a time.

I smile and hug Katherynn close. "I do like stirring oatmeal. Making breakfast for a little girl is one of the most fun things I get to do."

She grins as she spoons hot oatmeal into green bowls. "It's pretty, isn't it? And we can decorate it now!"

Decorating oatmeal? Yes. I want to be a person who decorates oatmeal.

Seeing the beautiful in the simple, the extraordinary in the ordinary, turns my heart toward the God whose strength sustains me with joy when my own strength is spent.  A heart trained to ponder what is good, what is worthy of praise, especially in the ordinary, is a heart that will more easily endure pain and suffering.

I don't know if Jesus decorated his oatmeal with honey and figs, but I know he was a little boy sharing life with a mother who treasured little moments with him. She surely trained him to be thankful for simple, ordinary blessings.

And, because she did, He had much to ponder that was good and worthy of praise when He had to endure pain and suffering, when he was exhausted by the noise and fray around him.

"Let the little children come unto Me," Jesus said.  "For of such is the kingdom of heaven."