Not to Be Forgotten

This morning for “couple” scripture study, Kevin and I were discussing the question from the Sunday School student manual. We got to the question about the importance of the two great commandments—to love God and to love your neighbor. I got to thinking about the day before and how Allie so beautifully demonstrated, at three years old, both of these…

Yesterday afternoon, I sat down at the piano. I started playing a hymn, merely because the hymnbook was what happened to be open in front of me. Allie’s eyes lit up as I began to play and she moseyed over to the piano with a goofy little grin, and asked sweetly, “Mom, will you play ‘I Am a Child of God’ for Aaa-llie?’” Now how could I resist that?

I smiled. “Of course, Allie.” And I played it, while we sang it together. How I love her little singing voice, the way she strains to belt out the high notes, then resorting to a soft, sweet head voice when belting gets out of her range. But more than anything, I love her passion, her adoration for the music. She has no fear, nor sense of self-consciousness.

I let her choose a few more songs—“Snowman” and “Popcorn” being among the first she chose. Then came her fourth favorite song, “I Like to Look for Rainbows,” and my eyes filled with tears as she sang the line, “I want to be the best I can, and live with God again.” I wonder when she’ll really know what she’s singing about? And perhaps she already does.

After running out of ideas, she began to choose songs according to the accompanying illustration, so I, of course, had to sing a few on my own. We got to “Jesus Loved the Little Children” which also had a drawing of the Savior tenderly holding an infant. She looked at it and I said, “Allie, did you know that Jesus loves little children, just like this baby, and just like you? Jesus loves Allie very much.”

She replied, “And Allie loves Jesus.”

Then in the evening, I got the girls in their PJs, and right before putting them to bed, ran out to the front yard to water my flowers. Sami stood in the doorway and Allie followed me outside. Just as we were heading back inside, her older friends Aura and Jose from down the street, rode by on their bikes. Of course they stopped in our driveway—they absolutely adore Allie. We talked for a few minutes, and then they rode away. As Allie followed me back inside, she said, “I love Aura and Jose.” I stopped and turned around and she had this look on her face like everyone in the world loved her and she loved them, too. And she looked so happy. She knows of her worth, as well as theirs, and she’s only three years old.

The greatest teachers of those two great commandments tend to be, what we see, as the “least” among us.