Telling this in present tense
I am sitting here, checking my email just like I do at some point every day. Bailee is watching Blue's Clues, which normally, can not be interrupted (if she had her way).
I open an email from my mother entitled "Interview with God". I normally don't read forwards, but since it was from my mother, I took a look. I click on the link to watch the video, and beautiful music starts playing. Bailee hurries over and tugs on my shirt sleeve, and I pick her up and put her on my lap.
*Before reading on, go here: Interview With God and click on "view presentation". The rest of this story will make more sense afterward.
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So Bailee is on my lap and the video starts, and her body just relaxes. I mean, every muscle in her body just goes limp, but in a good way. She leans her head back on me and settles in, exhaling.
We watch the video, and about halfway into it, when the question is asked "What would you want your children to know", she points to the screen and says "Jesus!"
"What?" I say. Not sure if I heard her correctly.
"Jesus."She says again, looking back and smiling at me.
I look somewhat confused, because if you watched the video, there are no images of Jesus whatsoever, only pictures of beautiful landscapes, and text scrolling across the video screen.
She points to the picture of Jesus we have hanging over our mantelpiece and says "Jesus," and points back at the screen: "Jesus!"
"Do you see him, Bailee?" I ask.
"Uh Huh, That one!" Which is her way of saying, yes, right there, and she points once more to the screen.
I sit in awe, wondering what she sees, or if she is just feeling Godly presence, etc.
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The movie ends and she claps her hands and says "Again, Mommy!"
I press play, and after the first slide she says, smiling, "Jesus, Mommy! See him?"
I'm not sure exactly why, but at that point I felt warm and relaxed, just as she had when I pulled her into my lap. Tears formed in my eyes and I said "Bailee Marie, I love you."
She turned around, hugged me, and said, "See Jesus?" once more.
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She made me play that video again and again, clapping her hands each time and exclaiming "Again!"
I'm not exactly sure what she saw, or what she felt, but it helped me to realize a few things.
She is one smart little girl. And she has felt the warmth of the Savior's love, and she can recognize when his spirit is present.
Through a video of landscape photography, and words she cannot decipher, she propped herself on my lap and exclaimed "Jesus, Mommy. See him?" So sure of herself, so intent on sharing her joy with me. She would clap her hands and ask for it, again and again. How many two-year old children do you know, that would ask to watch that video over and over again?
I was once again reminded of her great innocence. Her thirst and want and need for knowledge. Her trusting nature, that helps her to believe whatever it is that I or others who love her, are teaching her.
I am appreciative of her childlike innocence, and her ability to know when the spirit of her Lord is nigh. I am somewhat envious of it, also. But most of all, I am grateful that I have a bright, beautiful, SMART, young Daughter of God, who reminds me daily of what the Lord can, will, and has done for us. Each and every one of us.
You can take this or leave this how you like, but next time you are around a child, just pay attention. Look into their eyes and see how pure and clean they truly are. I don't know about anyone else, but that is the cleanliness, and the purity that I am striving for. So that I can be with my Heavenly Father again someday.
Something to study/think about:
- BIBLE REFERENCE: Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
- BIBLE REFERENCE: Matthew 18:1-5 Emphasis on verse 4: "Whosoever therefor shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
- BOOK OF MORMON REFERENCE: 3 Nephi 9:22 "Therefore, whoso repenteth and cometh unto me as a little child, him will I receive, for of such is the kingdom of God. Behold, for such I have laid down my life, and have taken it up again; therefore repent, and come unto me ye ends of the earth, and be saved."
~E
