by Kevin Burton
This is a story about a boy and his mother.
The mother has thought things through. She will push through the pain. She is doing the right thing. She is resolute.
The big house on the corner? The boy will be leaving that now. He will be back on weekends, but mostly he will be somewhere else.
He will be at a school with other children who don’t see well, or at all. He has already struggled through the other school. He drifted, was unfocused. He just couldn’t manage it. It wasn’t right for him.
The new place will understand him, meet his specific needs, individually, allow him to learn and succeed. It has all been arranged. He will get the help that he needs. But there will be a distance now. No more kisses goodnight.
It’s time to go.
The boy is in the back seat. His suitcase is in the trunk. He didn’t pack it. He didn’t want to go. But this is the right thing.
It’s an hour and 15 minutes to the big city.
The mother is in the front passenger seat. Her boy will be away now. It’s the right thing to do but it hurts and her tears will come tonight.
And they will keep coming, hot and stinging, as her eyes blink.
Then, blink of an eye. Blink. You say years passed. I say, no more than the blink of an eye……
Another car heads toward its destination. The boy is in the back seat. The mother is in the front passenger seat. The mother will be away now. The boy has packed the car, the mother has not. She didn’t want to go.
Eighteen minutes to the big city.
They have thought things through. They will push through the pain. They are doing the right thing. They are resolute.
The new place will understand her, meet her specific needs, individually, allow her to live and prosper. It has all been arranged. She will get the help that she needs. But there will be a distance now. No more walking two blocks to see her for the boy.
The mother has enjoyed the old place, but it has become a painful struggle. The boy has witnessed the struggle.
The things she has always done with ease she now does with great difficulty or not at all. Her shoulders ache with the collective burden of years. Her hands don’t always obey her commands. She just can’t manage it.
This is her victory lap in the Lord, but she runs it with a walker, or a cane, or a helping hand.
This is a story about a boy and his mother. If it’s hard to read, it’s much harder to write I assure you.
But there is a God who upholds them both. Always has and always will.
He always does the right things, even painful things, such as sending his only Son, though sinless and innocent, to earth to be mocked, beaten and killed. This was His plan for salvation for His children.
This is the God who holds the boy and his mother, two of His children, in His hands. He understands pain. He notes their tears, even counts them. He will dry them.
This is the God who has created a place for them, the boy and his mother. No blindness or arthritis or any dysfunction will enter this place. No schools for blind children, no assisted living facilities.
It has all been arranged.
That God will be the boy’s eyes, the mother’s hands, until it is time to go.
This is a story about a boy and his mother, and the God who watches over them.
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