Daily Lesson for October 24, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson:

A couple years ago I picked up Gabrielle from school and as we neared the our home I heard her crying in the backseat.

"What's happened?" I asked.

"Christian is moving away," she said.

Christian was a boy in her class and her first crush.

"Oh, I'm sorry," I said. "I know that hurts. But it's just one of those things in life."

I remembered back to my first few crushes and how awful it was when they or I moved away or however else it became obvious that we were not going to go together from elementary through junior high and marry after high school. I could still feel the hurt of that moment when I first realized it -- the knot in the stomach and the bulge in the throats and the water rising up in the wells of my eyes.

As we rounded the park in our neighborhood I said, "Do you remember that song you used to sing in pre-school -- 'Going on a Bear Hunt'?  There's that part about coming to the forest, 'Can't go over it.  Can't go under it.  Can't go around it.  Gotta go through it.'

"This is just something you gotta get through in life," I told her.

We traced the park and then turned onto our street. "But how," she asked, "through tears and semi-breathless sobs. How do I get through it?"

"Well," I said, "about like you get through most things. First you cry, and then you cry, and then you cry some more, and then you pray, and then you cry some more, and then you have ice cream. That's how you get through it.

Would you like some ice cream when we get home?"

She grinned wryly and sheepishly and shook her head with a slight but clear beam of in her eye.

We pulled into the garage, walked through the utility, into the kitchen and without passing GO headed directly for the refrigerator.  We pulled out a carton of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream and I began to scoop out salvation. We sat down next to one another at the kitchen table and both began to eat. She had stopped crying and it was silent in the kitchen. I could tell we were both enjoying the ice cream and also the company.

A couple bites in I said, "Well I tell you what; I'm just glad he was a Christian."  She looked at me curiously and I smiled broadly, she rolled her eyes mildly and smiled back again wryly and we both began to laugh loudly.

"I want to amend what I said earlier. First you cry, and then you cry, and then you cry some more, and then you pray, and then you cry some more, and then you have ice cream. And then you laugh. And that's how you get through it."

That's how we we keep on getting through it.