wisdom from a three-year-old
My cousin, Brittany, and I went shopping with her two little girls last week. They lost their home in the storms, and I took them out for a night of shopping fun! We had a blast! On the way there, we were talking about how the girls were dealing with the trauma. Brittany and her girls are all having nightmares, but Lilly, who is three, seems to be handling it rather well. She doesn’t talk about her dreams, though Brittany wakes up when she hears her jerk and talk in her sleep, so she knows she is having nightmares too. Lannah, who is five, has talked a lot about how scared she was and how she is still scared. But Lilly talks more about how everything is gone, and that they are okay.
Brittany has tried to talk to them about what happened. One day while Lannah was at school, Lilly and Brittany were drawing. Brittany said, “Let’s draw the house before the tornado.” So they did. They drew the house and trees and everything just the way it looked before. Then Brittany said, “Now let’s draw the house after the tornado.” They were actually in the house when the tornado came through. They got between the drier and the wall. The only thing left of the house was the wall where they had taken shelter. So that’s what they drew. She said they drew a picture where everything was destroyed except that wall.
Then Lilly said, “Here Mommy, trace my hand.” Brittany said, “Why do you want me to trace your hand?” She said, “Mommy, just trace my hand.” Brittany laughed at her, but traced her hand anyway. “What is that?” she asked. Lilly replied, “That’s God’s hand holding up the wall.”
Wow. This little girl, in the midst of losing her home, her clothes, her toys, and everything she had, knows exactly why she is alive. She knows that God protected her and kept her safe. She is a very wise little girl.
