Coming Full Circle

    I am not a native of Nashville. I consider myself a Florida girl through and through even though I was actually born in Louisiana. However, because I grew up in a small town, I appreciate the cycle of continuity that accompanies a small-town lifestyle. Generations attend the same church. People live next door to each other in houses that have been passed down and children of children end up playing side by side much as their parents did. There are drawbacks of living in a small town, but the blessings are many.
   Nashville, on the other hand is far from a small town. We are well over a million and a half if you count what they call the "bedroom communities", i.e., the suburban communities where people who work in the downtown area drive home to sleep at night. Nashville is a city on the cusp of change. But despite its rapid growth and big-city amenities, I am comforted that some things don't seem to change much...or at least, one very important thing.
    I picked up Little One from her first day of Preschool/Mother's Day Out at St. B's today. Twenty-five years ago, I was parking in the same parking lot and walking down the same stairs to pick The Daughter up. Today it was her daughter. I turned around, and in the blink of an eye I am now the grandmother and not the mother. I got a big gulp in my throat when I rounded the corner and saw the classrooms lining the hallway. The Director of the PreSchool is the same lovely lady whom I am honored to count as a friend. I even knew several of the young mothers (one is a much loved former student of mine). I imagine that Little One will sing some of the same praise songs, learn the same scriptures, and celebrate the Holy Days in much the same way. I also have little doubt that she will be surrounded by the love and faithfulness of God in her time at St. B's, just as her mother was.

    However, all of this continuity is more than just a coincidental blessing. It is, for me, the living fulfillment of scripture. In Psalm 78 we are exhorted:
We will not hide them from their descendants; 
   we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD,
   his power, and the wonders he has done.
⁵ He decreed statutes for Jacob
   and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors
   to teach their children,
⁶ so the next generation would know them,
   even the children yet to be born,
   and they in turn would tell their children.
⁷ Then they would put their trust in God...
  

  This is what I will keep in mind as I pray for Little One and for her precious teachers in this Christ-centered place. I am forever grateful to St. B's for the love, the mercy, and the truth of the Gospel that were lived out before The Daughter when she was but a little girl. And I rejoice that Little One will likewise be the recipient of that selfsame love, mercy and truth.

   I am honored to see the faithfulness of God as it is coming full circle in my life. With the help, guidance, and tutelage of many, The Husband and I made it a priority that all of our children, including The Daughter, were taught the marvelous deeds of the Lord, and now I am getting to see what the scripture refers to as children yet to the born, the next generation, including our precious Little One, being steeped in the same life-giving Truth.

     To God be the Glory, great things He hath done...

Here are some pictures of Little One today!

At home, all ready to go. I love my lunchbox! Can you tell?!

Ready, Set, Go! I am playing in the gym at St. B's before school starts!

Sitting on the same steps where The Daughter once sat!
Little One and her mommy look so much alike!