Panic ensued in the middle seat of our minivan on Friday night. I turned and faced Little Squirt. He was furiously digging through his Spiderman wallet, and then turning it upside down and giving it a shake. “I can’t find the Toys R Us card!” he wailed. My heart sank.
Earlier in the day, a late birthday card had arrived from Aunt Liz and Uncle Nick, enclosed with a $30 gift card to his favorite store. Little Squirt was thrilled to the gills and wanted me to take to him to Toys R Us that very minute to shop. I had pressing things to do that didn’t include browsing a toy store. So I gave him a couple of options: We could skip his Vacation Bible School picnic that evening, in lieu of a pizza dinner and shopping with his gift card. Or we could shop sometime over the weekend.
It took Little Squirt two seconds to decide that he preferred a pizza dinner and Toys R Us shopping spree that evening. He waved his gift card high in the air. “I’m gonna buy a snorkel and flippers for the beach!” he said excitedly. Knowing his propensity to lose everything in his possession, I offered to hold his gift card for safekeeping. But he declined, begging me to be allowed to keep the gift card in his Spiderman wallet like a big boy. At least, though, I talked him into letting me keep the wallet in my purse so nothing would get lost. He wriggled with excited anticipation through the rest of the day.
A few hours later, he, Super Hubs and I shared a thin-crust sausage at our favorite pizza joint, and then Little Squirt dug around in my purse and pulled out his wallet. He removed some of his birthday cash and played with it for a bit. Then, wallet in hand, he followed us to the car, and we headed to Toys R Us.
That is when the gift card became MIA. I, too, turned the Spiderman wallet inside out, searching its every little pocket. Then I searched through my purse, hoping it had just fallen out of wallet in there, and landed on a soft Vera Bradley cushion. We looked all over the car. We called the restaurant to see if the gift card had been found on their floor. But it was undoubtedly gone.
Little Squirt’s eyes welled up with tears, and his voice shook with disappointment. “It’s lost! I can’t believe I lost my special gift card!” My felt awful for him. I am chronically only as good as my saddest kid, and my little guy was so very sad. “Now I can’t buy a new snorkel!” he cried.
Super Hubs had been quiet throughout the drama, and I was wondering what he was thinking. Was he annoyed that we had scheduled our precious Friday evening plans around spending a now defunct gift card? Would he lecture his little boy on the virtues of responsibility?
My husband made me proud. He chose to lavish his child with love and grace. “Little Squirt,” my husband said. “Forget about the gift card. I’m going to give you $30. And we are going to Toys R Us. You can spend the money however you want.”
My little boy sat up straighter in the car with a huge grin. “Thanks, Dad!” he said with joy. We arrived back home one hour, one snorkel, and two flippers later.
Sometimes daddies just love to give. My God is like that, too. Sometimes He showers me with good things, even when I'm not deserving of them.
1 comment:
He is worth it.
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