Ellie, Thanksgiving and the Little Fish

Cindy and I were driving Ellie, our six-year-old granddaughter the other day over to her parents and we talked to her about how things were going in first grade. Cindy asked her “Are there any boys that you like?” Ellie replied with her two-front tooth-missing smile, “Yeah, I like Jake S.”

“What do you like about Jake S.?” Cindy followed up. “When the other boys don’t want me to play with them, he tells them that they need to. That’s what boys are supposed to do-take care of the girls.”

We both laughed and I replied, “That’s right, Ellie. It sounds like Jake S. is a real cool guy.” She then said with a serious look on her face, “Yeah, I’ve got to find out where he’s going to college ‘cause that’s where people get married.”

This little exchange happened just in the five-minute drive between our house and her house.

The next night we were able to have her and her two-year-old sister, Sadie, over at our house. Cindy and Ellie had previously spent hours putting our Christmas light village up. They then played a game where Cindy would take a character from the village, hide him or her and see if Ellie could identify the missing piece. Amazingly, she was able to quickly identify just about anything that was missing from the village.

Then later in the week Ellie and I had one of “our little traditions.” We went to the indoor pool at Gold’s Gym and afterwards to Dairy Queen for a cheeseburger and ice cream cone. As we drove in the dark from DQ I said to her, “One of my headlights is out, Ellie. I used to get mad at people when one of their headlights was out but now I realize that it’s not good to judge others for something that they really can’t help.” I then explained to her that when you have one finger pointing at someone, three are automatically pointing back at you.

Ellie then spoke up, “Yeah, when we do bad things, bad things happen to us, not always, but most of the time.” I was impressed with her wisdom.

“Wow, Ellie, when I was young I didn’t think like you do. I was trying to do everything my own way.” Her reply was classic, “Yeah grandpa. You should be more like me.”

You get the picture. These are just little snippets that Cindy and I are able to have with our granddaughter as she is growing up so fast. As Thanksgiving approaches these little moments of watching a little girl grow up to become a young woman who will love God is what I am thankful for. These “extraordinary ordinary” moments I am learning to celebrate as real gifts from God.

This reminds me of a story about a little fish that was trying to find the ocean. He swam up to a larger fish and asked, “Can you help me find the ocean?” The larger fish replied, “You need to try harder, swim faster, do more good deeds-then your will find the ocean.” The little fish kept swimming frantically until he finally found the oldest, wisest fish of all. “Please, sir, I am trying to find the ocean. Can you help me?” The old, wise fish just sighed…and smiled.

Swimming In “The Ocean” With Ellie,

Jamie

Note: Do you have any stories of God’s Glory showing up in the ordinary? I would love to hear them and share them with a larger audience if you would like! Just email me at (JNBohnett@aol.com)

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