Nursery Rhymes and Popsicle Sticks

I will never forget her face. She was four years old, with long blond hair and blue-green eyes that were always searching, taking in the world around her.

She and her younger sister were our second foster care case, and Steve and I were still a little naive when it came to the behaviors that sometimes accompany kids who have come from difficult situations.

And so, when I first discovered popsicle sticks tucked in the crevices of her bed, I figured the cat did it. Or maybe they were left there from some intricate craft that my children had done that I didn't remember. Or maybe they came with the bed.

Yep. Naive.

After all, this little girl was not the brightest four year old I had ever seen. She was cute, she was sweet, and she was funny. But I definitely had concerns about her.

You see, she and I spent three months working on a nursery rhyme. Not even a WHOLE nursery rhyme, actually, just the first line.

"Okay, let's try that again...ready? Pat - a - cake, Pat - a - cake, Baker's Man. Now you try it."

She would look up at the ceiling, then down at her feet. She'd stick her tongue out in concentration, and taking a deep breath, she'd say, "Pat cake, Bat cake, in a can."

And I would scratch my head for a minute and then repeat it for her again.

And she'd say, "Okay. Pat a cake, in a cake, in a man."

And we did this for three months. Every day.

So you can see why I didn't really think that this little girl who couldn't remember eight nursery rhyme words in a row would be capable of sneaking popsicles into her bed.

Then I made her bed one morning, and I found two more popsicle sticks...and their wrappers.

Still not quite believing it could be true, I confronted her. "Did you take popsicles and eat them in your bed?"

She nodded. (At least she was honest, right?)

My brain started mapping the steps this little girl would have to take in order to actually remove the popsicles from the freezer. "When?" I asked her.

"At night when you were sleeping," she replied.

Uh huh. Okay. So maybe she was smarter than I had given her credit for. But we have a freezer that sits on top of the refrigerator, how did she get up there? "Start up in your top bunk and show me everything you would do to get that popsicle," I said.

And she showed me. She climbed down the bunk bed ladder, walked into the kitchen, went straight for the kitchen table, pulled a chair in front of the refrigerator, stood on her tip toes, opened the freezer door, and pulled out a popsicle. "Like this," she smiled.

"Okay, but how did you get the popsicle out of the wrapper?" I was really puzzled on this one. I shouldn't have been...

because she said, "It's easy!" And she turned the popsicle upside down, put her fingers underneath the top, and then walked them up the wrapper, pushing the popsicle until the stick forced itself through the plastic. A look of triumph was shining in her eyes as she took hold of the stick and pulled the popsicle free.

And I thought, "Wow! This kid is smart!"

She wasn't nursery rhyme smart, but she sure was popsicle stick smart.

God doesn't gift us all with the same strengths. How boring a world it would be if He did! Maybe we can easily understand theology, or memorize scripture, or teach, or serve others in a trade like carpentry, or maybe we are gifted with numbers, or words.

God has given us all strengths. It's up to us to identify them and use them for His glory. They aren't going to do us, or God, any good if we convince ourselves that we aren't "good enough".

1 Corinthians 12:15-19 says, "If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired."

Some of us might be nursery rhymes. Some of us might be popsicle sticks. If we can stop worrying about how we compare to others who have similar gifts, and instead put that energy and effort into developing the strengths we have, imagine the good that can be done in God's name.