Saturday morning brought my first little guest and her mommy to tea. My artistic little eight-year-old princess wore a black and white taffeta sun dress with white gloves and a wide-brimmed hat decorated with purple flowers and trailing tulle. She was all manners and politeness. She was readily observant, typical of a first-born girl. For two hours she skipped about my apartment looking at my things, conversing with me using mature vocabulary (Is that the Eiffel Tower? she asked when she saw a miniature on my bookshelf.), and inquiring about my France pictures (There is a pink animal in the background of one of your pictures, and we are wondering if it is a pig or a bear.)
We told her mother about pictures she had drawn in Sunday School this year, pictures illustrating the lesson or the memory verses. One picture was of a bridge crossing a deep chasm in which a fire roared. The bridge crossed to heaven. Some people thought they could jump across the chasm, but they fell headlong into the fire. The fire is hell and the bridge is Jesus. Or the other picture of a little girl caught in a raging flood crying out to God to save her. He hears her call, and He sends an angel who, in turn, sends a helicopter with her mommy in it to rescue the little girl. But, my 
little princess understands that even if God decided that the best way to rescue the little girl was to bring her to heaven, then if she were trusting Him, He would come down to her, wrap his loving arms around her, and carry her safely to heaven. The look on her face when we talk thus is spiritually sweet. My sense is that she feels deeply loved and secure in the thought of departing this earth and going to heaven.
little princess understands that even if God decided that the best way to rescue the little girl was to bring her to heaven, then if she were trusting Him, He would come down to her, wrap his loving arms around her, and carry her safely to heaven. The look on her face when we talk thus is spiritually sweet. My sense is that she feels deeply loved and secure in the thought of departing this earth and going to heaven.I loved having my little friend. And she enjoyed being enjoyed.
While my perception of my calling to this hamlet is to be a consistent, loving presence in my children's lives, I realized Saturday morning that the mother of my little princess might need a friend, too. I wonder with anticipation what living in this community will bring.
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