Hot Chocolate Fridays

For the past couple years, well, since my kids have gone to school there - so at least THREE, the PTA has had a hot chocolate stand in the common room/cafeteria at the kids' school for sale before the start of morning classes. For $1 you can have a cup of delicious rich cocoa to start your day! They've raised alot of money for parties and projects throughout the years, and it's VERY popular with the kids, even when it's 92 degrees before breakfast. They don't care.

And my kids are NO exception! It has truly become the highlight of the entire WEEK, and when I've talked to other moms, they all say the same thing - "It's a very big deal at our house!" They save their quarters and get up early and talk NON stop over breakfast about getting to school so they can enjoy the hot chocolate with their friends. It's really a pediatric version of what will transpire 20 years down the road - "going out for a cup of coffee with the girls"....

And with all that hype, it pains me to say that not ONCE in the past 3 Fridays we've had this year have they made it to school in time to get some!! Something always comes up at work and I don't get home early enough to get them there, or maybe the snooze button gets hit a few times more than normal by my very sorry, but very tired husband.

So today I rushed home from work, and it was just such a day. They had over-slept and they were in a hurry, and by the time we got in the car I had a bad feeling that history was about to repeat itself. And then the conversation in the car took an interesting turn and went something like this:

Ma-lak: "Oh man! We're going to be LATE!!! No hot chocolate AGAIN!"

Rea: "That's not true, Ma-lak! You have to stop saying that! You have to believe in God! He will help us get there in time - I asked Him!!"

Ma-lak: "But it's 8:05 already and look at all those cars ahead of us! We'll never make it!!"

Rea: "Stop it, Ma-lak!! You have to believe Him! You HAVE to!!"

I was practically in tears at this point, b/c after hundreds of trips to school, I knew it WOULD take a miracle in the face of a mathematical impossibility!

We pulled up to the curb by the playground, just outside the cafeteria, and as soon as they opened the car door, we heard the dreaded school bell ring!!

Ma-lak flounced out the door with an outrageous, "SEE!!!! I TOLD you so!!!!"

And Rea turned around to look at me with a face so sad and shocked that it reduced me to a puddle right in my seat. She was absolutely horrified!!

Not wanting to see her crushed, I told her to take Ni'ke and hurry, and maybe they would still let her get some hot chocolate.

I watched them race up to the table, hand in hand, and my heart shattered into a thousand pieces as I watched the lady shake her head "no" after Rea emphatically pleaded her case. They both turned around to me again with tears streaming down their faces, and I couldn't stop myself from sobbing right along with them!!

I motioned Rea over to try to comfort her, and what she said next absolutely undid me.

"But Mommy, I asked God to help us get the hot chocolate!! Why didn't He help us??!!"

Oh child.... To have a faith like that!

What could I say? She did everything right!! She persevered in her faith, even when it seemed completely impossible that she'd get the outcome she prayed for, and yet her answer didn't come....

I was immediately catapaulted 5-10 years into the future. If I can't explain how God sometimes says "no" to hot chocolate, how will she ever understand a break up with a first love, a tragedy, a war, a death?? Was this how MY mother felt all those times I flung myself into her arms sobbing over "the unfairness of it all"? Probably yes...

But I got it. And she will too.

So I said the only thing that I could say. "I'm so sorry, Baby. This time God said, 'No'"

She nodded her head and walked Ni'ke to her class, wiping away her tears all the way. I just sat there and watched them till they disappeared around the corner, and then I did the only thing that a mother who'd already been awake for 28 hours could possibly do after coming home from work and then leaving her children at school like that. I went home and made hot chocolate and drove BACK to the school and surprised them at their recess!

Because, really, wouldn't we do just about ANYthing to see the joy inside them transform itself into a smile bright enough to light up a thousand tomorrows??!!

YES!!

And then you think how much MORE our heavenly Father loves US... It's just too much to comprehend, but it's so real!!

Today was one of those "precious moments", and I thank God for each and every one of them. I pray that whatever lessons He would choose to teach me through my children will never fade away into a lost memory, but only be instilled deeper into me with each passing day.

Matthew 7: 7-11
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

For every one that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread (or hot chocolate!) will he give him a stone?

Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"