I had the most amazing encounter with four little cherubs. They were siblings, and one of them, an 8-year-old little girl named Jacqueline, was selling Brown Bag cookies. I was on the phone in my car at a friend’s office, talking to my boss, when these four little happy, hopeful faces appeared at my window.
I got out of the car and got down on my haunches so we were all at eye level, and asked the little girl about her fundraiser.
“We’ll get to go on a field trip,” she said, “either the zoo, or something else. Teacher hasn’t decided yet.”
I noticed that her list of orders was empty, so I asked, “Do you have a grown-up to drive you around to sell?”
“We are selling around here”–indicating the small trailer park–“and down the street at those apartments.”
Her little brother piped, “We went around to alllllll these houses, but everybody said ‘not now.'”
There was not an ounce of hangdog among them. I might have been the first person they approached, they were that wiggly and hopeful.
I bought three orders of cookies and made a donation–and the littlest, a five-year-old, I think–clapped his hand on his mouth and he danced a little. He let out a big breath and said, “We get to go on the field trip!”
I was so moved that I got to witness this incredible sweetness–only one little girl was selling, but her brothers and sisters helped with the same enthusiasm as though they themselves were going.
I told them where I lived, and said I would always buy from them if they came to my house.
Little Jacqueline thanked me, then said, “You don’t have to buy anything if you don’t have any money.”
***
the whole encounter was –it was like getting a glimpse of heaven.
There was a brightness around these children that made me feel like I had been in the presence of all that is good in the universe.
I want my heaven to be populated with children like these.
I haven’t done it justice.
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