I strolled in and saw her at a distance.
She was stomping her feet and spinning around in circles as if she were calling me in.
I found my place on the wall,
but she quickly detected me.
Some think I found her,
but honestly, it was the the beard that did the work.
She discovered my prickly mug and that was all she wrote.
It was a texture thing I suppose,
but it did the trick.
Zandy was mine!
After a few minutes of my beard being worked over, someone looked at me and said,
"You better watch it, she…"
"OUCH!" I hollered!
She tried to rip my face off!
Then, Zandy tried to pull me in and steal some kisses.
What the heck!?
I had to lay down the law and say, "that's not the way it works honey!"
You see, I have this love for people with special needs that runs deep – very deep.
To be honest, it's with anyone that is growing up, emerging, learning, or has been told that they "can't".
But this day, it was Zandy that captured my heart.
I'm naturally a people watcher.
In college, I would go and sit on the street corner some nights just to watch people for hours.
Some people call it boring, I call it high class entertainment.
Yesterday, as time went on, Zandy went about her business and I got to plug in from time to time,
but I mostly watched the rest of our team interact with the students there at Los Pipitos.
It intrigues me to sit back and watch how people interact with others;
how they talk to them,
how they listen,
how they serve,
how they genuinely care.
Unfortunately, sometimes it's the opposite, isn't it?
Not this time.
I watched Terrell play with Mario, and get owned in Tic-Tac-Toe.
I watched Grace patiently color with unending joy in her eyes.
I watched Chris hold this little girl as if she were his own.
Jesus said to His closest friends when they were arguing over who was the greatest,
"Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."
Sometimes our pride gets in the way of how we treat others, doesn't it?
Shouldn't we receive everyone like children?
The way it lit up their lives, if only for a moment, was well worth it.
