One day when Jude was arriving at Grandma’s house for his after-shopping time with the grandparents, he fell coming up the front steps. He was, as usual, carrying an armload of toys, and he missed a step and fell, hitting his forehead on the edge of the brick step.
Jude screamed, blood poured forth, and the priorities of the day changed in a moment. Mommy deposited Zane and his chair in the living room, Grandma got cold wet cloths, Grandpa looked wisely at the cut and said, “That’s gonna need some stitches all right! Bet that’ll leave a scar!”
Mommy considered the options and wisely phoned the pediatrician’s office instead of heading for the ER. They would see him right away, so Grandpa drove, Mommy comforted, and we got to the doctor’s office. Grandpa bravely entered a world of women and children, where women are the masters and children are the focus. (Sometimes guys feel like we live in that world all the time!)
Soon Mommy and Grandpa were forcibly holding Jude down on a table while the competent, confident doctor lady (about 10 years younger than my youngest child) cleaned the wound and did some magic with “medical grade super glue.” Grandpa felt validated when the doctor lady said, “That’s gonna leave a scar.”
It was pretty cool to see my daughter be Melissa be the competent Mommy and calmly and coolly take charge in a crisis. I thought, “She’s doing what Jean and I did a generation back when she faced crisis at Roosevelt Elementary in Medford, or when she got stranded a city away from us in Jamaica at her school!”
Lesson trusting children learn: Parents can’t always prevent the injury, or make the pain go away, or make it like it never happened. But parents can be there, be with the child, through the entire process from hurt to healing.
When you fall, it hurts. When the wound is being treated, it hurts. When it’s healing, it hurts. And it’s probably going to leave a scar. But Mommy will be with you all the way.
Like Father God and us. He can’t always prevent the wound, or take away the pain, or make it like it never happened. But he will always be with us. In it, through it, beyond it.