By Your Side

I was at work several years ago when the phone rang. "This is Lori" I said. I heard a sweet soft voice on the other end of the line, "Ummm...Mrs. Goodwin, ummmm, we need you to come to the school. I'm not sure how to tell you this, but...." At this point, my heart isn't beating at all. I can't breathe, my stomach has completely fallen to my feet and I can't even muster a single peep. The sweet lady continued, "Gabe, well, he, ummm, has a marble stuck in his nose!!" I sat there for a minute and I said "What?!?!?!?!?" I wanted to laugh but her voice sounded like this was a serious situation and I didn't want to seem like a bad mother but my mind began to race. A marble?!?!?!? "I'm on my way" I said. I went into my boss' office, slowly opened the door and trying to not laugh I said, "I need to go. The school just called and Gabe needs to go to the doctor." Yeah, that was a safe comment. How do you go about telling your boss that your child has shoved a marble up his nose? I'm still in awe of how my child (who was 5 at the time) was able to shove a marble (those things are pretty big) up his little, tiny nose!

I walked to the car almost shaking my head in disbelief and as I pulled out of the parking deck I called the pediatrician's office. I went through the spill with the emergency nurse (yes, to me, this was an emergency) and she said "Just bring him in." I wanted to say "Really, you think I should bring him in?!?!?" I just love the way doctors/nurses talk to you sometimes. Like what else was I going to do with him? Keep it shoved up there???

I pulled into the school probably on two wheels. Walked into the school office and there my precious baby sat. His eyes were red from crying and Kristina, in all her wonder, was standing beside him, hip on her hand. She was in the 4th grade and totally humilated at her brother. Gabe looked up at me and he said, "Mommy, I just wanted to know if it would fit." He burst into tears and just collapsed into my arms. Ms. Know It All (yes, you guessed it, Kristina) said "Gabe SHOVED a marble UP HIS NOSE MOM!!!" I looked at the school secretary who was doing absolutely everything she could to keep the situation calm and said "How did he fit a marble up his nose?" "Lori" she said "I found out it is a necklace bead, not a marble that you play with." Well, a little bit of relief washed over me. I finished up the normal check-out procedure and out the door we went.

When we got to the doctor's office they rushed us in pretty quickly to a room. A nurse looked up his nose, "Yep, there's a bead in there" she said and before long the doctor came in. He looked and muttered and looked some more and he said "Ma'am, I'm going to have to stick this tool up his nose to get the bead because he has it pushed nearly to his eye!" "WHAT?!?!" I said. "Well, it is either this or surgery so it's your choice." "No, no, this is fine, let's try this first." So, the doctor left the room to get his tools and I began to reason with Gabe. I was trying to explain to him what the doctor was fixing to do and how he needed to be real still and that baby looked at me with total fear in his eyes and he said "Mommy, I can be still and do right if you'll just hold me!"

Those precious words have been a secret between me and Gabe even up unto this day. When the world is starting to wear Gabe down he'll come and whisper something similar to those words to me, climb in my lap (even at 12 years old) and hold on for a few minutes and then, in a flash, he's gone again. It's like he just needs that reassurance that Mom is still holding him.

As children of God we often need that reassurance that he is holding us. In Matthew 28:20 he reassures us by saying "...And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Just as children need to feel our arms wrapped around them we need to fill God's love wrap around us. Sometimes I believe he wraps love around us through the arms of a child, a stranger, a sister or maybe our husbands. Or, sometimes, I think he wraps us in love with the wind from the ocean, the sand that surrounds us when we lay on the beach, the leaves from our trees that we rake up and then fall into, or maybe, it's that cup of coffee that warms us to the core. Always know that you are not alone and his hands are always holding you.