Navidad

I returned to the public school room this week after the incident in Newtown, Connecticut.  I saw the faces of the precious children in the classroom.  I only thought things were different when I began this journey.  Yesterday I found changes in the school in wake of the sad incident.

I will not share those changes for obvious reasons but they are changes that the children are oblivious to.  I searched the room for an answer as to why this would happen and I did not find it here.  I went about my day with a completely packed schedule.  The teacher left an awesome sub-folder with extra instructions.  I pushed to complete every assignment.

Alas, I was going to fail.  I simply could not do everything and surmised that she had given me extra work in the event that we had extra time...I did not.  I looked at the last assignment, a book titled Navidad.  I thought to myself "I just do not have time to read this, the children are restless, it's the end  of the day and they want to go home."  No! No! No! I can not read it.

Something drew me to the book and I told the children that I would begin reading it but we could not finish it.  I did not need to finish it.  The message was in the first few pages. 

Navidad es cuando nacio el nino Jesus.  Christmas is when baby Jesus was born.  That was the message of the book!  I would have missed the opportunity to deliver that message but more than that, I would have missed the messages the children had about the birth of Christ. 

Although I am bi-lingual, Spanish is not my primary/daily language but there was something so beautiful about hearing a six year old share their story about the "baby Jesus" and the "manger" and Christmas in Spanish. 

In the wake of the heaviness related to the incident that took place at Sandy Hook, it was refreshing to hear these children.  I wanted to hug each one of them.  I was grateful that the teacher left the book for me to read to the class but I was grateful that I found the time to read it.  Chances like that don't come around too often. 

I will not let anyone deny me the right to say Merry Christmas.  For some, it is a holiday party but the truth is that it is a time of our Savior's birth and it is important that we keep sharing that even in the schools.

Feliz Navidad!

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and Mary gave birth to her firstborn, a son [Jesus].  She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.  Luke 2:6-7