Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Color of Her Eyes

NOTE: To understand the subtlety of this story, you need to know that my wife and I are extremely caucasion, but almost five years ago we adopted a most beautiful daughter of Asian descent.

I have been trying to get a handle on all of these new friends Lily has made in Kindergarten. She has 20 children in her class and not many of them have been in class with her before. Nicole was a name I had heard often, and I asked Lily, "Is Nicole the other Chinese girl that sits at your table?" Lily responded, "I don't know, dad."

Trying to help her, I added, "well, you know, does she look like you?" Lily screwed up her face in intense concentration and said, "no, dad, she has different color eyes."

I had tried to help her identify her friend by the color of her skin and country of origin, but Lily saw deeper, someone who she had considered long enough to notice what color her eyes were.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit has to say to His church.

1 comment:

D2 said...

I remember JD being in Kindergarten and showing me a picture the teacher took of him and a couple of other boys. I asked him if one of the boys was the friend he talked about all the time. He said "Yes. He's the one in the red shirt". The boy in the red shirt was black, but JD didn't use skin color to identify him, either. Don't you wish everyone did that? Jesus said to become as children.. no biases, no preconceived notions. As someone once said.. what a drag it is getting old. :O)