Devotion 284 - Eyes, Teeth

We walked into the new eye doctor’s offices.   My daughters and I were told to sit behind the lobby in blue chairs.  We found some blue chairs.  Then a kind old doctor came out and pointed passed another wall with a laughing, “Those blue chairs.”

Better I thought -magazines and a larger room in which my 4-year old might roam.  Lily sat quietly.  She hates doctors of any flavor.  I tried to get her excited about new glasses but to no avail.  Then her sister, my Ava began rifling through the magazines and books.

“READ ME!”  She announced; Ava has little use for many prepositions and pronouns.  I sat to read to Ava and Lily curled up a bit more in her chair.  Not only was white coat fear gripping her but embarrassment from her loud, know no fear sibling pushed her to tears.

I immediately waved the white flag and texted her dad.  If we were going to get through the exam and on to choices that had to do with fashion for a 10-year old girl I knew I would need reinforcements.

Brian appeared at the moment the doctor called Lily back.  I prayed a silent halleluiah.  Ava then pelted me with questions as to where Lily went and why.  I was sure in moments Ava would ask for glasses, but like all things Ava, she surprised me.  She didn’t want glasses, no, she wanted blue eyes.

I explained her eyes were like mine, like her sisters, but she wanted eyes like her brother and dad.  I had no argument for that.

We like… to be like.  I get that.

Ava sat with my Dad some days later.  Eight decades separate them and birthplaces that extend as far as the earth is wide, but they connect.

They both have extraordinary senses of humor that connect them.  They have begun over the last two years to find ways; words and activities that make each other laugh and bring each other joy.  It began early; practically the first visit to daddy’s when Ava stole his tissue box.  She then stole his heart.

We were spending a Saturday afternoon with Dad and the children had selected a movie.  Ava sat patiently watching then I slowly watched her migrate over to Daddy’s recliner.  She lays her head on the arm rest then gently slides herself into his lap feet extended on the couch next door and they begin their fun.

Today, and just for his precious granddaughter, Daddy decided to remove his dental partial out of his mouth absolutely sure he would get a laugh.  Ava was fascinated and soon realized Grandpa’s mouth without a partial was quite similar to hers.  She is cleft and a portion of her upper teeth are missing.  She ran to the bathroom, stood high in the mirror then ran back and forth looking at Grandpa’s mouth, then hers and back again. 

She was THRILLED.  Ever so gradually Grandpa replaced his partial.  Ava ran to me with fingers in and out of her mouth wondering why her teeth weren’t removable.  She wanted to be like Grandpa in the worst way.  Blue eyes and false teeth all in a few days, my daughter was growing up.

Ava was having so much fun we didn’t sacrifice her time to a nap. Soon we were home, Ava exhausted, and I was within moments tucking her sleeping frame under the covers.  I laid next to her now amazed at the gift she is.  Remembering the pictures that announced her referral and the sad faces, one after the next.  Wondering if she knew how to smile and laugh.  Praying.  God heard me. 

I am constantly amazed her capacity to love and to pull joy out of all circumstances.  And I pray as she grows and sees differences in her and others that she doesn’t settle with being “like” someone else.

I pray she is not like her mother in that way.  I remember at her age, yes, just 4, being desperately jealous of the 7-year old that lived next to me.  I would wait for her to come out of her house to play and then insist my mother find play clothes that were somehow similar to hers.    The comparisons never stopped; four decades later, I still pray every day that they will. 

We love, I love acceptance, approval, and comfort, I find it if I see some vestige of my world similar to someone else’s.  But why do I create a fence around my similarities or dissimilarities to others when Christ calls us to the garden of Himself.  Where He says “transform to be LIKE me.”  I read again from Romans, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

And I ask myself, do I fit in?  No, not in this world, but hopefully, in His. 

I wonder as I look through my lens, do I love like He would love, do I serve like He would serve, do I reason like He would reason and do I forgive like He has forgiven me.  Strange how none of that has to do with how I physically look, if I have false teeth or blue eyes.  No rather it’s a state of the heart, a lens only created with the glass of scripture and prayer.  I can chide my daughter for wanting a different color eyes or I can point her to the eyes of Jesus and how glorious He is and how dearly He sees her, and me and us Beloved.

For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Eph 2:10