Tender Mercies

This morning I woke up no earlier than usual, around 6 AM with Gabriel climbing into our bed. Depending on the day he will sometimes fall asleep again in our bed between Jennifer and I. But he is not a gentle sleeper, he moves a lot, kicks, drools, you know, normal little boy stuff. Well I can sleep through that, I force myself to; but Jennifer can't. Once Gabe climbs in the bed she is awake. And on a Saturday morning that is just torture. It is her morning to sleep in. She works hard all week, and deserves a few extra hours of sleep when she can get them.

So I carried Gabe, very much awake back to his room, put him in his bed, and went and filled his sipply cup with apple juice. He drank it, and than went back to sleep, and I went back to sleep on the floor next to his bed.


An hour later when Gabe woke up again and wanted to play, I was in no mood to play. I wanted to sleep in too. But like he is determined. He pulled the quilt off of me and then tried to lift me up by gently (he is usually very gentle with this part) lift my head to get me up. I didn't want to play with the playdoe, I didn't want to play cars, I wanted him to quietly color, or watch Saturday morning cartoons, or anything that would let me fall back asleep. Not the case. Daddy this and daddy that; I just sat in the living room and slowly acted upon his requests.


As the sun slowly rose in the sky, I became more and more cantankerous. I just wanted quiet, simple quiet. (You'd think by now I should know that a want of quiet with a two year old boy, and a five month old boy is a wish). It being Saturday morning we had ordered a basket from a food co-op., Bountiful Baskets, and my father-in-law was meeting us there, so there was additional pressure because we couldn't be late like usual. Well I scrambled to get myself and Gabe dressed to go pick up our basket. The pick up spot in on 33rd South, in the parking lot of the new fire station.

This is where my morning changed:

Most Saturday mornings the fire trucks are out of the garage somewhere, or the garage doors are closed. But this morning, the truck was in the garage, and the door was half way up. I told Gabe that we would go see the fire truck as soon as we had bagged our basket. As we approached the garage door, a fireman opened the garage door all the way and invited us in. Gabe didn't really know what to think. He had only seen the fire trucks screaming up the street, never this close. And then I felt the love that our Father in Heaven has for Gabriel, and me as his daddy. The fireman invited Gabe to sit in the drivers seat. Gabe was scared, and didn't want to be alone up there. I said its just like mommy's car. His eyes opened wide as he grabbed the steering wheel! He was on cloud nine. The only thing that would have made it better was if the sirens were screaming!


All morning, I had selfishly denied Gabriel my attention, therefore my love. His Father in Heaven showed me that his beautiful bright smile is worth far more than my quiet time. As we got in our car and headed to get hashbrowns at Burger King (it's becoming a tradition for Gabe and I) I said a silent prayer of thanks to my Father in Heaven for letting my witness another of His tender mercies (see vs 12). - Thank you Father, for teaching me, and for helping me see Gabe's smile this morning! - Gabe just woke up from his nap, so I need to now go and try to practise what I have been taught this morning, that attention to the little details makes all the difference.

It's hard to see his smile in this picture, but it was as big as it gets!