WHAT'S A LIFE FOR ANYWAY?

WHAT'S A LIFE FOR ANYWAY?

Wilbur, the pig, had a devoted spider friend who wrote in her web, the words,  SOME PIG  - TERRIFIC -  RADIANT -  HUMBLE  - which opened the eyes of his animal friends to declare he was, also, phenomenal, wonderful and unique.  Wilbur, the runt of the litter, told Charlotte he did not feel like he was terrific, but she said, “You’re terrific as far as I’m concerned.  I think you’re sensational.”

How many times have our children’s eyes looked up into ours, in despair, and said, “I am untalented, unattractive, worthless, the runt of all of God’s children that have ever lived on the earth.”   And there we stand, with their hearts in our hands, with the sacred chance to bring them to a place of safety where their feelings will not be misinterpreted, but held, valued, nourished and carried across their personal gulf of discouragement to a place of hope and eventual rescue.  It happens over and over again, a child’s need to find a safe harbor, a Wilbur’s barn, their mother’s heart, where blinking, shining lights flash and ultimately glow and penetrate their troubled souls with words that say, “You’re remarkable, you’re magnificent and you are definitely “SOME PIG!” 

One of the most important discoveries I have made in my personal journey through 39 years of mothering 10 spectacularly different children, is the “art of absorbing,” the God-given ability to stand before a needy, desperate child and absorb their pain and frustration.  I believe God fashioned a mother’s heart in a very unique way, with a special capacity to create the safety in a barn that allows a child to look up, and see and learn that they are indeed terrific, at least terrific. The chance to be Charlotte to our Wilburs is a calling of the most sacred kind.

Our story ends with Wilbur working very hard to live up to all that Charlotte believed him to be and he eventually BECAME all her webby words and won a special prize at the fair.  As Charlotte is about to die, Wilbur says, “You have saved me Charlotte. Why did you do all this for me?”  She said,  “I wove my webs because I liked you. After all, what’s a life for anyway?”