Lessons from the Nursery

A few nights ago, my two and a half year old, E, woke up crying suddenly - apparently from a nightmare. It turned out to be the first of many such outbursts and that he was more likely sick than scared, but the first time happens to be a little bit different than the others.

I was walking up the stairs and heard him cry out. I walked straight to his room to prevent him from waking up his nine month old brother, D. As my eyes adjusted to the near-total darkness of the boys’ room, I saw E sitting on the edge of his bed. I went over to him and asked if he was all right. Immediately, and without a word, he slid to the floor in front of me and onto his knees, his arms folded on the bed with his head tucked between them. This is how we say prayers each night, but we had already prayed.

“Do you want to say prayers?” I asked. “Um huh,” was the timid answer. So I also knelt down and said a quiet prayer with my scared or sick little boy. Upon completing the prayer, E turned to me and threw his arms around me. I held him for a long while and then he let go. I asked him if he wanted to climb into bed. He said he did and up he climbed. I gave him a drink of his juice and tucked him in. I handed him his Mickey Mouse doll and he curled around it, holding it tight. I told him I loved him and left the room, closing the door softly behind me. (All of this successfully without waking D – what a miracle!)

I’ll probably never know why E wanted to pray at that moment. Maybe he’d forgotten that we’d already said our prayers. Maybe he was upset Daddy had said them instead of Mommy. Maybe he wanted an excuse to get out of bed. But I like to think that maybe, just maybe, in the heart of a child beats the calm assurance that when we are hurt or when we’re afraid there is someone up there that we can turn to who knows how we feel and has the power to make it better. In our grown-up world, we so often underestimate children, but there is a purity about them that is intoxicating. What we as adults are too grown-up or smart or proud to do, children do instinctively. They turn to those who will give them comfort. I just hope I can remember this lesson taught by my toddler.