Sunshine

Usually the weather in Northern California is the stuff songs are written about, especially in the spring. However this season we had rain for about 31 billion days in a row. But that ended this week and we have jumped from a Saturday of 45 degrees to a Thursday of 82. The sun is out, no one - especially the teachers - wants to be in the classroom, and out backyard garden has grown about 3 feet. My snapdragons, which have only given green foliage these past months, are budding with a few red or yellow blossoms are starting to poke their heads out. Now I have to let you know that my usual MO for gardening is to plant the seeds, give them water and then just let them fend for themselves. Therefore I never know if they are ever really going to produce anything.

Ah hah, now comes the incredible, or incredibly obvious, metaphor about life. I am a teacher with at risk teenagers. Every day I go in with students who for various reasons have not done well in school. There are some students, try as I might, that, well lets just say we rub each other the wrong way. Last year I had a Student that I truly had a hard time connecting with. There were many mornings when I actually told God that I would be ok with it if He encouraged this Student to play hookie. When the Student graduated this past November, I shook his hand and wished him luck with the future, but in my heart of hearts I knew I hadn't forgiven him for the hellish things he did in my class. Call me petty, small minded, what ever. I just couldn't do it. Well, yesterday this Student comes in after classes were done to say hi to the staff, and tell us how he has just gotten out of a program run by the courts that God has used to really turn his thinking around - this thinking about his attitude, substance abuse, and outlook. Even though I knew I had nothing to do with his changes, it brought me to tears seeing this young man really start to bloom. (OK, another cliche, but my heart was melting, so what the heck.)