Gratitude for Our Constant Companions

It must be hard to be the youngest.

I realized that last week, when my youngest daughter made the off-hand comment that she had never seen Disney's Beauty and the Beast.  She casually noted this when a commercial came on, advertising that it was being re-released in 3D.

What?  I mean, what a classic movie!  We even have the DVD up in our playroom.  Really, how could I have neglected her so?  My oldest daughter was the only grandchild for a while.  Believe me, if there were a Disney movie out, be in it theatres or on DVD, she not only saw it, but she had the matching Barbie and was wearing the princess' dress.

But not my youngest.  She was the baby in the bjorn on soccer fields, falling asleep as Mom cheered her older sister on.  She was the four-year old staying up past her bedtime as her older brother's baseball game went into extra innings.  She thinks all second graders are whisked away after school and driven from one activity to another -- a few for her, but a lot for older brother and sister.

She's got the sweetest disposition and cheerful nature because of it.  She'll have fun anywhere, because she's always had to look around and make friends with the other siblings, the other little ones.

But still...I felt bad.  Beauty and the Beast reproached me.  Didn't I ever just have time for her?  And so on Friday, we went and saw it.  Just the two of us, with some popcorn and fruit punch.  What a treat to see her enjoying such a glorious movie for the first time on the big screen.  The soundtrack, the animation...Disney at its finest.

I looked over at her in the theatre, her little face rapt, her 3D glasses too big, her mouth crunching popcorn...and my heart swelled up with love for this littlest child. 

It's good to appreciate your constant companion every now and then.

You all probably know, or at least have heard the bible verse about our own constant companion:

Even the hairs on your head have all been counted.  Do not be afraid.  Luke 12:7.

That statement strikes me with incredulous comfort each time I read it.  Does God actually know the number of hairs on my head?  The bible promises he does...but do I ever think about that?  Am I ever grateful enough that God himself would ever know something so trvial about me, someone so trivial?

And yet the words are there.  The words that have resonated throughout history.  The words that have lasted throughout thousands of years remind me, too:

Even the hairs on your head have all been counted.  Do not be afraid.  Luke 12:7.

It's good to consider these words, and like I said, to appreciate our constant companion.

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson