What's in Your PocketBook?

I arrive in the classroom before any of the students get there.  I tuck my pocketbook away in a cubby and it leaves with me for lunch and comes back with me for the rest of the day.  I always have a pencil in my hand which enables me to jot something down for a student, or to hand the pencil off to the student who has once again broken his pencil's point.  When I was in the fifth grade, my joke, "having a pencil without a point is pointless" was understood and the students would chuckle.  Can't use that joke on first graders.  This reminds me of how I have to customize my humor to the age of the children I am with.  "Sorry, Charlie.  Wait, your name is not Charlie" worked well in second grade, the pointless pencil joke worked well in fifth grade.  I'm getting off topic but perhaps I can tie this all together soon.  Or perhaps not.

Oh yeah.  When I was in the fifth grade, allowing the students to use my colored pens would not only brighten their papers, but also their day.  Fortunately, the teacher I worked with would agree with all my ideas and think it lovely that the students would happily participate based on the interesting writing tool of mine they would use.  These kids were great, they'd use the pen and hand it back to me at the end of class.  I always thought that quite something for public school students.

So, I have a silvery case which is supposed to be for cosmetics which I use for a pencil/pen case in my purse.  I used the same one last year in the fifth grade, too.   The girls would love to pick through it to find their favorite color pen.  I have not handed out pens to first-graders for obvious reasons.  But this last indoors lunch recess we shared, I set some of the pens out, and the delight of the approximate five six year olds who were writing in their little "recess" books (my idea, pretty cool, right?) was delightful to witness.   Why, Mrs. Diehm was letting them use things that came out of her pocketbook!  One student's attention turned to my pocketbook and she seemed surprised that I had one.  She peeked into it and noticed that my wallet was shiny like the case the pens came out of.  She must have seen my keys in the purse and she looked up at me and asked, "Do you have a car?"

One tender, innocent inquiry which made my heart smile and muse at the simplicity and honesty of a child's question and how truly sweet this little girl is.  She was looking into a place not everyone can look, her "teacher's" purse.  It whet her appetite for information, to dig deeper about the owner, a person who is warm and helpful to her.  May it be so when we go into the Word of God.  May what we see in there cause us to look into the face of the One who cares so deeply for us, with a pure desire to get to speak to Him, and to come to know Him better.