Sunday's Story: Oh Joseph!

This story is more for me than anyone but here goes: (Ps. To protect him, Joseph is not his real name.)



About 3 months ago I was volunteering in the school and working with the Jr. high sports so I was in and out of the front office a ton. One day I was waiting for a copy of something and I see a small blond shrimp hand the front office woman a note. She shook her head and said,

"Oh Joseph.."

as if to say "I'm sorry". "Go sit over there, Please." It was the chair to see the Principal.

I looked over directly at him because his big blue eyes were just holding back the flood gates and turning red. I was super curious what a skinny, rail of a kid like him could have done to be in such a position. His dress made him look like a "straight arrow" in both sense of the phrase.

As I go to leave, I gave him one last look. Those blue pain filled eyes haunting me and I just wanted to go give him a big hug, tell the little guy everything was going to be OK. All I could give was a sympathetic smile as his eyes dropped to the floor.

The whole drive home I thought of him so I said a quick prayer for him. "Something like, "Dear Heavenly Father, please bless little Joseph. Who knows what he did but please bless that they will go easy on him.



I went on with my day. Nothing too special. Pick up the kids in the school line, they all hop in.

and the "MOM, MOM, Mom" commenced like chirping baby birds.

Zack blurts out: "Guess what, Abby got beat up today!!"

Abby says, "Yup, but I was strong Mommy and I tried not to cry!"

My face is just as on fire as my voice," WHAT?!! You tell me exactly what happened, EVERYTHING!" And I pick up my cell phone to start dialing the school.

Abby says, "I was running and this boy got me, elbowed me in the face and punched me in the stomach, but don't worry because I was strong and I didn't cry but I almost did a flip in the air!"

~~~~Now I'm a total basket case.~~~

I start to cry and pull over quick.

I stop the car, turn around in my seat and talk to Abby face to face.

Who WAS it? What is his name?

"Joseph"

Wait one second...I describe who I saw earlier...YES it was the one and the same.

The VERY child I had prayed about!!

Right then and there the two thoughts of this same child merged powerfully.

I was suddenly calmed. Then I proceeded to pull out the full story.

A month ago Abby found a snake on school grounds. She reported it right away, the janitor came out and killed it. I was notified and everything was fine. Today Abby saw another one. She was with little Joseph both times. He tried to tell her not to tell anyone but she didn't know why. She ran to the aid on the field to tell. Joseph knew they would try to kill the snake. He wanted to save it and ran after Abby and did his best to stop her. They both were running so fast explaining why she nearly did a flip.

Turns out it was just a random belt they saw.

I calmly asked her if she thought Joseph was just trying to protect the snake.

She cocked her head to one side as if a light bulb went off, "yup, totally." She said.

I asked if she was mad at Joseph still. She said No.

The lack of anger on her part was further testament that this boy hadn't acted in a thought out malicious way. It was in the moment trying to save an animal's life.

The mommy bear in me relaxed a bit and for one little second I felt like I got a small glimpse of what it must be like to be God seeing the whole story, as things really are in people's hearts.

And because I don't believe in coincidence, I KNOW I was supposed to learn this lesson in a powerful way.

I hope I can remember this story for the rest of my life and I hope it helped you too.

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Ps. If I've ever been offended by you, please know I have forgiven you. It's my prayer you can forgive me of all my short comings too.