Chance has been bringing home all his work from school. And of course, like every other Mother, I’ve been filing the really good ones away in his childhood mementos box that I plan on giving his future wife on their first anniversary together.

I love how some of his paperwork comes back saying “Cha” instead of “Chance” because he just didn’t have time to bother writing his WHOLE name, or his name is written backwards, or how his stick figure people look more like big bodied bugs with little legs and hair. Chance is LEARNING… and he’s loving it.

Their class had hung this up recently. The project was to design a plain white pre-outlined “person” as yourself:

Every child had their own creativity displayed (some had their parents artistic talent displayed too… come on! this is kindergarten!) but to me, Chance’s stuck out.

As he was creating “himself”, he told me:

“Mama… I’m gonna draw a lot of teeth because I love snacks. I think it’s really silly that my paper person doesn’t have hands because I’m totally drawing him with my hands right NOW! And he’s gonna have green shoes cuz shoes help me run fast… and green means ‘GO’! Hey! I’m gonna draw green on where my hands should be too so they know next time to put hands there. And I’m gonna draw my heart cuz that’s where Jesus lives. And my smile is gonna be the biggest thing because I’m so happy!”

I didn’t help him with his project at all… though I sat with him the whole time he worked on it (btw… this is a good example of what kindergarten homework looks like). As you can see, he also stuck smiley stickers all over his paper person too… including his EYES. And either he’s bleeding into his leg or Jesus flows down into there. I’m not sure. Whichever way, the REAL Chance got bored with this project at about 10 minutes and decided this would be how he’d turn it in.

Another day, he came home with this project and gave it to Paxton to wear:

I laughed first… then my heart overspilled with joy.

You see… Chance LOVES Jesus. I know he thinks about him often because he TALKS about him often. And because he’s the big brother, it’s trickling down to his little brother. And on the days I feel like a failure of a mother… I think about these days and remember I got one thing right…

… they know Jesus.

My kids teach me more about the love of God than any seminary class ever could. And for that… I’m thankful.