February 15, 2005
Last Wednesday Celine went to her friend's birthday party. Brienne, Laurent & I picked her up after 2 hours of "girly" fun. Celine came home with a goodie bag of candies, confetti and little toy trinkets collected after breaking the pinata. Brienne and Laurent were also graciously given goodies bags with a couple pieces of candy and trinkets.
Thursday morning at breakfast I emptied Celine's goodie bag and we talked about the fact that she had received many toys whereas her brother and sister had only a couple each. Additionally, she had a lot of candy and they had little. I explained that she was not obligated to share with them but it would be kind to do so, seeing as she had fistfuls of little toys and candy. Celine, out of her own generosity, gave both Brienne and Laurent 2 pieces of candy (from her 10) and one spinning top each. She had 4 to start with and they had none. Celine did this willingly as I wasn't going to make her share (I'm honestly not sure what I would of done if she chose not to share?!)
Later in the day Celine, quite amazed at what she just discovered in her party goodie bag, found me in the kitchen. "Mommy, look I have 3 more tops in my bag". Very intrigued I stopped what I was doing (preparing the umpteenth meal/snack this week) and counted for myself. Sure enough, there were 3 extra tops in her bag that had not been there when we came home from the party and were not there at breakfast when we emptied the bag. They were a different color than the ones she had given Laurent and Brienne but we checked to see that they still had their's - and they did. So, Wednesday afternoon Celine came home with 4 tops and Thursday afternoon we have a total of 7 in the house (we didn't have any of these toys prior to the party).
What a wonderful faith builder for a young girl's heart! What a wonderful faith builder for an older, more skeptical mommy's heart! I admit I looked closely at the tops, hoping for a confirmation that said "love God", instead I only found "Made in China". Inspite of my skepticism we have no other way to explain this miracle other than God choose to show Himself very real to our daughter and our whole family. Sure, I believe Jesus fed thousands with just a few fish and loaves and that he raised Lazarus from the dead, healed countless others. So, why am I filled with disbelief that he could multiply a few plastic tops? In the end, the facts remain. Where there were 2 (after sharing with her brother and sister), there are now mysteriously 5. But more than 5 tops, there is a deposit of faith in the trusting hearts of our children, who have very tangible evidence that God loves and provides for them.
