Beautiful Mess

Recently our family got some bad news. My five-year old cousin, Dominic, had a routine tonsillectomy and as he was recovering, aspirated acid into his lungs. By the time I got the news he was in critical condition with one lung non-functioning and the other shutting down.

Needless to say, we were all shocked and saddened beyond measure.

While I'm no stranger to tears, (slight understatement) in situations like this, I cry for a second and then charge out into prayer mode. I consider prayer my job here on earth, so even before my aunt was done filling me in, I was already working. I was knocking on the door of Heaven. Loudly.

However, my 13-year old daughter, Lil' Momma, was a weeping wreck. We'd already prayed on our knees, talked through things, and offered comfort but she couldn't stop crying. I was trying to get her calmed down and, at the same time, corral Spike, my nine-year old and get him off to bed. I entered the kitchen to see him, standing on the counters with an open bag of flour in his hands. He jumped down and started pouring it into a bowl. Not measuring....just pouring. Flour was going all over my freshly cleaned kitchen and I freaked out.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Making dough. I've just gotta make dough mom."

"It's 8:45. Put the flour away and get into bed right now!"

"No mom. I've gotta make dough. It's important."

By then, I'd started to boil. He was pouring water into the bowl and as I moved toward him, he cracked a big goofy grin and said, "This is going to make her feel better. She's gonna love it."

"What are you talking about?"

"Lil' Momma. I'm making her cookies because she's feeling down."

I burst into tears.

I always pray that my kids will have the compassion of Christ, but this took me off guard. My Spike saw a need and was trying to meet it, and all I could see was the mess he was making. I let him surprise his sister with his cookies and it was a surprise, because I was so tired that I forgot to tell him to add butter and baking soda. They looked and tasted terrible but when he offered them to her, she wrapped her arms around him and told him she loved him.

It was a watershed moment in our family and a memory I'll never forget.

I'm happy to say that our prayers for Dominic were answered by God. He recovered slowly, was released from the hospital last week and is healing at home. God is good!