I'm sure that those of you who know me well are totally intrigued by the title of this post. I don't like to be dirty. I take two showers a day and NEVER put Jonathan to bed without a bath. I never made mud pies as a child. In fact, I have always hated for my hands to be dirty. But, yesterday I began to feel a just a little differently about dirt.
Now, first of all, you need to understand something about our son, Jonathan. Because of health issues, he couldn't be around other children for his first two years of life. Then, until recently, he simply hasn't had much opportunity to be around other children on a regular basis. Jonathan is not afraid of other children or standoffish with them... he's curious but he usually just observes them and does his own thing instead of actually playing WITH them. Keith and I have had a desire for a long time for Jonathan to have the opportunity to have friends his own age. He's a pretty social little guy, but he's just never really interacted much with other children. Since being at Arbor, he's begun to grow by leaps and bounds in his speech, but also in his socialization skills. Praise!
Ok, back to yesterday. After the Egg Hunt at church, we went to the home of some friends from church. They live on Lake Martin and have 4 children. Their back yard has a huge trampolene and large area that they use for an above-ground pool during the summer, but right now it's just a bare spot of dirt and sand surrounded by keystones. And their water hose stretches all the way to this barren spot of land. Do you see where this is leading?
Yep. Jonathan and their two youngest boys decided to have a little fun on the barren spot with the water hose and a child-size excavator. They dug big holes, filled them up with water, and proceeded to jump in them, splash them on one another, spread mud on one another and basically become three walking, giggling, wet, mud-blobs with legs. My initial reaction of "Oh no! Don't get dirty!" was quickly replaced by joy and thankfulness at watching Jonathan interact with them. He was stomping and splashing and laughing and imitating them like I've never seen him do before. After a while, they decided to turn the water hose on the trampolene and then jump on it after it had a good soaking. Jonathan is not used to unsteady ground, so one jump from Tillman or Macon and Jonathan's little fee would slip right out from under him and he'd fall flat on the trampolene, then just laugh as they bounced him. When jumping would get old, they'd head back to the mud pit. They played out there for hours and I finally had to make him come out of the mud so I could strip him down and bathe him before we could come home!
So, I guess dirt can be a good thing. When it brings such joy to such a cute little boy and provides him a way to begin interacting with other children it's not half bad. In fact, it made me smile and laugh and it made my heart sing with joy. God never ceases to amaze me at what He uses to bless me. Yesterday it was a huge mud puddle and I'm so thankful.
