Hearts that Overflow

When our hearts are overflowing, sometimes we have tears.

I work in an office at an elementary school and from time to time, a couple of the teachers will send a child my way to help reinforce something they may be working on in the classroom. I’m always happy to help. I often get a glimpse of Jesus when I talk with children. I used to tell my own kids when they were little, that children were His favorite people.

There’s a little boy who was coming in for a short while to read to me for a minute. He was working on fluency and every little bit helps, so he would come in and read a short passage and we would count his words together. It was always so fun to see his eyes light up when he read a little bit more than the day before. I think I enjoyed his progress as much as he did.

I hadn’t seen him in a while, but he popped in a couple of days ago with a new page to read with more difficult words. I was happy to see him. I’d missed his excitement and little stories. But, this time he had something on his mind. He didn’t miss a beat when he told me, “He had tears.”

I found that a strange expression for a little guy, but I waited as he went on to tell me he had tears because he was going to be leaving his teacher and going up to second grade.

My heart ached for him. Change is hard at any age. I remembered having teachers in my own life, who left footprints on my heart and I had been really sad to leave them, even though I was moving forward. I remembered my own children having teachers who left their footprints on my babies’ hearts and my own as well.

I have come to appreciate what a gift it is when we become so touched by the people in our lives that leaving them, gives us tears, to borrow my little friend’s expression. Those tears are simply evidence of the lasting, beautiful effect that those people will always have on our hearts. Those people change us forever and help to shape the people we become.

I reassured my little friend that he would get to see his teacher next year and that I was sure he would love second grade. That seemed to be enough for him. He took a deep breath and began reading and went a little further than the day before.

This time of year often brings lots of change, grade changes, school changes, graduations and weddings are just a few things that tend to occur in the spring. Those events while happy, often lead to us having tears, but the good news is that those tears mean we’re alive and our hearts are full, so full that they are overflowing, and that is truly a blessing.

A little boy reminded me. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂