Close to My Heart

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Tonight Shelly came in to me after a little while in bed and told me she was scared. We have a deal, if she stays in bed all night then I pick her up from school the next day, and she doesn't have to ride the bus. This has been working fairly well. Tonight her fear won out and she came to hang out on the couch in my bedroom. When I asked her if she was ready for bed, she climbed into my bed. "I just feel like laying with you for a little while." I laid down next to her, she put her arm around me. She rolled onto her back and held my hand. She rolled to her other side and played with the corner of a pillow case.

Will she remember this, later? This peaceful moment of peeking our eyes open to smile at each other, then closing our eyes again to pretend we're sleeping? Later, when she thinks I don't understand anything, will she remember that at one time I was one of her favorite people to talk to? Will she realize, somewhere in the future, that when she tells me what's going on and I give her advice, its because my perspective is so much broader than hers? Will she accept it? Or will she throw up her hands and turn away, to find a friend who will moan with her over whatever problem she's facing that day? Will we still connect? Oh I pray we will. I pray she and I will be close friends. And with that will come ups and downs, as any relationship has. But I pray that in all the teaching and training I'm doing, I don't forget that this life is blossoming and growing before my eyes, and what joy it will be to hold her close to my heart for as long as the Lord allows.