Learning about love from a child...

I experienced a pure, beautiful love tonight at church. I haven’t felt so loved in a very long time.

All through middle school and high school, I spent several nights a week doing childcare at my church. Most of the kids have forgotten me or have found new teachers to love. Not Jacob. Jacob lights up when he spots me from across the church (sometimes he makes faces at me and gets in trouble).

Tonight, I was sitting in church by myself and Jacob dragged his parents over to me and said, “Look, Dad. Three seats.” Jacob sat in the chair next to me, looked up at me, and smiled his toothy little grin. I melted. All through service, Jacob slyly watched what I was writing and he took identical notes. What I wrote magically appeared on Jacob’s paper. Every once in a while, he would stop what he was doing to simply watch me. If I held my hands in my lap, Jacob would do the same. When I folded my paper in half, Jacob’s paper was folded to match mine. For one hour, I knew that I was loved, admired, and emulated. To me, that was beautiful