That’s how our grandson sings his favorite Christmas song. Well, kids do say the darnedest things. Our grandson has been singing the songs of the season that he’s learning in his pre-school. Happily, it’s a Christian pre-school where Jesus is the reason for the season.
The lad repeated almost verbatim what the pastor had taught about candy canes. Turn it upside down and you get the letter “J.” For Jesus. See the white and red stripes? The red is for the blood Jesus shed for our sins. The white is how he washes us clean from those sins. And right side up, the candy cane is a shepherd’s crook. That’s because Jesus is our Good Shepherd.
The tykes are moving right along. At this little Christian pre-school, He is on earth.
Their first lesson last September was basic: God made me. I asked my grandson who made all the other children in his class. God made them, too, he said confidently.
Amazing. My grandson just turned four and already he knows more than the President, the Senate, and a majority of the Supreme Court. Smart kid.
I like his use of Mercy Miles. We’ve traveled a lot of them. Last December, when his twin sisters were born, we dashed the hundreds of miles to visit.
It was all fine until Christmas Eve. Then, the elder of the twins looked gray. Quickly, she was raced back into St. Mary’s Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She had Respiratory Synctial Virus (RSV).
In a few minutes, the loving staff at St. Mary’s called for her sister to be brought in, too. She also had RSV, though a less serious case. Younger sister remained just sick enough, though, to be a constant companion to her older sister.
Through nine days of watchful waiting, we prayed most earnestly.
My Catholic friends know what a Novena is. Now, we know, too.
The Christmas lights of St. Mary’s blazed through all those nights. I would lift our grandson up and point to the window of the girls’ room. He was not allowed to visit them. But he could pray for them, and for all the dear children who were being cared for at that quiet time of year.
Throughout 2012, I traveled around the country with the FRC-Heritage Foundation Values Bus. I put in some 13,341 miles. At every stop in the 40 cities and towns in eight states that we visited, I would tell the story of the twins and their RSV and how St. Mary’s gave them the best medical care in the world. I also said our family would do all we could to defend this blessed institution and its staff from threats to their—and our—religious liberty.
In every room at St. Mary’s, there is Jesus. He’s on earth. And I like to think that all those travels this year—to carry a message—were Mercy Miles.