Sep
29

It is not the “plenty” that will keep you from the Kingdom of God….

Home > Living the Gospel > It is not the “plenty” that will keep you from the Kingdom of God….

A young mother writes: As I was starting dinner late one afternoon I listened to my 5 year old daughter, Melissa, playing with her dolls in the next room. Her imagination was creative in that one day her “children” would be on a trip, another day at a tea party or a dance. Today she was teaching school.

“Now, Bethann,” she began, “it’s up to you to take over as big sister now that Molly no longer lives here. It is your job to help me teach the younger kids.”

Molly no longer lives here? I stopped rolling dough and walked to the doorway. Molly was Melissa’s favorite doll, had been since she had received it a couple years ago as a gift. Where Melissa went, Molly went! Now that I thought about it, Bethann, not Molly, rested on her pillow when I tucked her in last night. The phone rang and I forgot to ask about Molly’s whereabouts. Now I asked her:

” Lissa, what do you mean ‘Molly doesn’t live here anymore?'”

“Well,” she began with all the aplomb of a 5 year old, “the other day Molly and I were in the back yard by Mrs. Jarret’s house. She and this man were talking about a fire. I didn’t understand it all, but they were saying things like ‘really bad’ and ‘total loss.’ I mean how do you lose a house? Anyway, pretty soon that little girl who comes to Mrs. Jarret’s sometimes came over to talk to me and Molly.”

“Emily”, I supplied. “Mrs. Jarret’s granddaughter.”

“Yes, Em’ly.” She went on. “Em’ly was real sad. She said her house burned up and that all her toys and stuff were no good. She said some ladies gave her people some clothes and she got a couple of toys, but all her dollies were burned up. She kept looking at Molly and said she was real sweet. She touched her real gentle and pushed her hair back just like you do mine. I felt real bad for her. No dollies at all!! I have lots and I love them all. They are like my friends. I remembered what Fr. Ted said in Children’s Church–that when we have a lot of something we should share. So I asked Em’ly if she’d like to ‘dopt Molly and she said she would and that she would take real good care of her. She even smiled. So now Molly lives with Em’ly”. She looked at me with big eyes. “You aren’t mad at me, are you, Mommy?”

How could I be angry with her? I shook my head and hugged her hard, pushing her hair back behind her ears.

It is not the “plenty” that we have that will keep us from the Kingdom of God, but what we do with that “plenty.” Melissa had learned the lesson well.

Linda Caminiti