(Though the eyes of a child)

I was having dinner with my two adopted granddaughters. One is 5 and the other is 3. We were all sitting on the floor around a low table eating pizza and some sliced fruit. They call me Besta as that is the Norwegian word for a grandparent.

This day we had planned a sleep over so there was a lot of interest in who would be sleeping where. The upstairs bedroom has been occupied for a few months by a lady who needed a place to live. The arrangements had really not been planned but this lady, whose name is Mary, was suddenly without a home and now I have watched as what started out as a temporary solution seems to be settling in to something more permanent.

Here is the dinner conversation:

“Besta, Why is Mary living with you?”

“I really don’t know”

“Is it because she doesn’t have a home?”

“Yes.”

Then this from the 3 year old, “She could have stayed in Bethlehem with baby Jesus.”

I was silent. Captivated by how the nativity story and the Mary in our home were inseparable in the mind of this 3 year old. Amused that maybe there was another alternative.

My next post will talk about this idea through aging eyes.