Worms

I am in the front seat of the van right now. It is 11:48 pm. Our estimated time of arrival in Dallas is 2:43 am. That’s what the Garmin says. So as soon as I get home I will post this. And that puts me at a new level of blog crazy.

First you should know that we are driving through Oklahoma and it smells like worms. Mud and worms. Travis was just driving and so we talked about worms and how we wished we could put our hands in some good old-fashioned dirt and dig around for worms. This was followed by an example of how Travis can drive with his teeth, use no hands on the wheel for 14 seconds, and a story he made up for me about a town called Crayonville that was threatened by two giant erasers. He is my favorite driving buddy. We sing country songs together, make up songs, name dead animals on the side of the road, and best of all, we listen intently to Delilah. We love that woman. We think about calling in but never have the guts. What if she answers??? Maybe I will call and dedicate a song to my mom for Mother’s Day.

Today we played in a little town in Missouri. Actually it is more like we played at the central location of four little towns…I am still not sure what town we actually played in. But that is beside the point. The point is this church had more girls than I have ever seen in one building. They were everywhere like little ants. Cute ants.

At lunch there was an entire table of girls, like five years old to thirteen, and one single boy. It was a 14:1 ratio and he hated it. The girls were making him color. His mom was having him take pictures with me. And he was turning red. I felt bad for him. It was like my cousin Eric who was our only boy cousin growing up that we dressed up in girl clothes and make-up. Sorry Eric. But the guys, being the guys they are were excited for him. They said that he should appreciate his odds because one day this would be a good thing! So live it up little nine-year-old man. One day you will love being the only guy at a table full of girls!

Anyways…back to the girls. They were precious. A lot of them were little. First, second, third grade. And they were looking at me with their huge, innocent eyes hanging on to every word I said. I just wanted to hug all of them, and tell them that they were beautiful, and tell them all the mistakes I had ever made and tell them all the things to avoid in life and keep them from ever messing up, or hurting, or being painfully dumped by a stupid boy. I felt like there should be a moment between us all.

So I made one.

After the show I had all the girls come up that had been hanging around all day and we took a girl picture. Then I said, “Girls huddle up.” I had no idea what I would say next. And then I felt stupid, like, what right do I have to impart wisdom??? But it was too late. They were all looking at me with their big beautiful eyes waiting to hear what I had to say.

So you know…I told them they were beautiful. And unique. And special. And that God had made them that way and they never needed to change. The only thing I could think of next was…and girls, be nice. And they all giggled.

We are notoriously cat like little creatures. And we know it. Prone to be caddy and mean and jealous. Even the first graders knew that. And we all giggled. I said…really, lets be girls that are nice, that make others feel loved and special, girls that refuse to talk bad about others and refuse to think we are any better or any worse than the people around us.

That was sort of it. They all said ok. And we ended our girl huddle, gave lots of hugs, and took lots of pictures. And that moment meant a lot to me.

You wonder if you are ever affecting people. And as we drive tonight and I think about worms, I am also thinking about these little girls. Their little faces keep popping into my head. What if they grow up to be kind? Loving? Accepting? What if they don’t care what they look like and don’t care if the person they are talking to is “cool” or “not cool”…what if they just love like Jesus. How beautiful would that be? That is my hope for them tonight. For each of us really.

That and I really hope I can play with mud and worms sometime soon. It sounds strangely fun. Happy Monday friends. Love people well today.