The Quiet Moments of Growing Up

I just recently started teaching Sunday School, and as an inexperienced teacher, I spent yesterday looking for pictures, coloring them, and cutting them out to prepare. As I was working, Liam, who was bored, came over to me. He asked if he could color my pictures too. Feeling a bit annoyed, I handed him one of my failed attempts. He must have enjoyed it because he asked for more pictures, so I printed some out for him.

While I was busy with my own work, I told him not to bother me. Later, when I looked over, I found him carefully coloring inside the lines, taking his time and filling every corner neatly. I guess he’s learned a lot from Head Start. Not long ago, he would have given up easily, said he couldn’t do it, and his coloring would have been weak and messy, with no clear distinction between inside and outside the lines. But now, seeing him so focused and coloring so beautifully, I was overwhelmed with so many emotions—pride, admiration, tenderness, joy, and love.

And somehow, there was a bittersweet feeling too. Watching him grow, taking care of things on his own little by little, I realized that the time before he fully steps into his own world is not so far away. As I grow older, he grows up. Just as my mom once felt, and my grandmother before her. Maybe that’s why people say life simply flows.

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