Growing

"Did I really wear this?" asked Rylee as she and her mother were sorting through a box of memories. Rylee held up a tiny knitted bonnet. "It's so small!"Mom smiled. "It's amazing how much babies grow, isn't it?" She picked up a pair of baby shoes. "You wore these when you were just starting to walk." Mom rubbed the soft leather. "Before long, you were running everywhere and ready for a larger pair of shoes."Rylee found a small scrapbook and opened it. "Look what you wrote here, Mom! It says, 'Rylee's drawings from ages three to six.'" She examined the pages. "I'm glad to see they got better each year! The more I grew, the better I drew." Rylee grinned at her mom. "I'm a poet and you didn't even know it!" Mom laughed and turned to another page in the book. "Look. Here's a list of questions you asked when you were in kindergarten."Rylee eagerly looked at the list. "Listen to these, Mom. 'Are clouds made out of cotton candy?' 'Is God everywhere all the time?' 'Why did Jesus have to die?'""All good questions," said Mom. "Do you know the answers now?""Sure," said Rylee. "I've learned a lot since kindergarten."Mom nodded. "Good. You grew physically and mentally, and you grew spiritually too. That's how it should be."Rylee thought for a moment. "I know I grew physically and mentally by eating food and going to school, but how did I grow spiritually? Just by going to church?""Church was a big part of it--the things you learned in Sunday school and from the pastor's sermons about Jesus and how much He loved you. Reading the Bible was also important, and so was prayer. God used all those things to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus and make you more like Him."Rylee held up the scrapbook. "It's like these drawings. The more I grew, the better I drew. And the more I, uh…" She laughed. "Oops! Guess I'm not a poet after all. I can't think of a rhyme for how I grew spiritually."Mom laughed too. "That's okay," she said. "You're still growing." -Sandra L. Ardoin