Chipped plates

On a cool afternoon this fall, I puttered away on the computer in our den, and my wife sat on the futon editing a presentation she would be giving to the women in our church.  Chatting and writing, we could hear the typical noises of a house with children and thought nothing of it.

Soon my bride arose and left the room for a moment.  When she returned, she said, "Come see."

Conspirators

I took her hand as she led me to the kitchen.  There, stacked neatly on the counter, sat the clean dishes from the dishwasher.  I recalled hearing the dishes being clanked about but thought my teenage son had taken to the unloading.  I was wrong.  My six-year old daughter conspired with her eight-year old sister to surprise the folks.  They can put away most of the Tupperware, silverware, and plastic glasses themselves.  The plates' home they cannot reach.  And so the neat collection of saucers and bowls betrayed their act of love.

I gathered my eight-year old, Emma, into my arms and squished the stuffing out of her.  "Thank you, Sweetheart, for unloading the dishwasher."  In a glorious confession, Emma declared, "It was Kara's idea," and went on to explain how the plan unfolded.  Kara the six-year old stood listening in the hallway with her perennial smile.  I squished her, too, which isn't hard considering her petite stature.

Lifting the plates into their cupboard home, I noted chips on a quarter of them (none of them new).  Should you have the opportunity to dine with us, you'll not find china before you, and be careful because you might nick yourself on the edge of your dish.  That's just the way it is.  Nicked dishes abide within the residences of families. 

Sometimes things get chipped through carelessness.  Sometimes they get broken through disobedience.  From time to time, they get chipped because in learning to do a task, a child lacks the strength and grace to accomplish the task that their seasoned sibling can pull off without a thought.  The broken dishes are discarded and the sins forgiven.  The chipped plates remain as a testimony to the growth and maturity that comes as part of being in a family.

And sometimes, when eight-year olds and six-year olds show a character beyond their years, everything happens as it should, and two little girls stand beaming at what their hands have wrought.