Bundles of Joy

I was making my way down the steps of the spoiled escalator and he was right beside me, struggling to make his way down the steps which were a little too huge for him. As my right hand was hanging idly between the both of us, he conveniently reached out for it, and tightly gripped two of my fingers. With his right hand on the railing, he slowly conquered the giant steps with my help. Just as he felt he could do it on his own and was about to let go of the extra hand, he lost his balance and almost fell. My heart skipped a beat and I almost cried out, but he instinctively grabbed hold of my hand again, and I held it so tightly that I thought I was never going to let go.

However, feeling something was amiss, he turned to check out the owner of the extra hand, and seeing a total stranger who simply greeted him with an unfamiliar 'hello' instead of his Dad, he stared for a second or two, let go of my hand, and climbed up the stairs again to his Dad.

It all happened in just a few minutes of my life and he was a total stranger, yet I relive the memory of those moments so vividly. There is an indescribable joy in holding the hand of a little one, helping and guiding him along the way.

When my Mum quitted her 21-year-old job as an accounts clerk to help in the church kindergarten, I could not understand why would one do that. True, it is a ministry and she is serving God and not man. But why this job? This is perhaps one of the most tiring and dirty jobs. Setting aside the low pay, I still could not imagine why someone was willing to give up an office job in exchange for an 8.30am-to-8.30pm job, working with a bunch of kiddos.

But everytime she comes back home, she is always full of stories, of how the kids did this and the kids did that. Whenever she talks about them, I thought I saw a sparkle in her eyes, and all the weariness of the day just disappeared. It was then that I realised that she has found something special that none of us will ever understand. Something so special that it makes all her physical and mental weariness seem worthwhile. Just to see a kid smile at her after having pronounced a word correctly makes everything else melts away.

I realised that she did not exchange her 21-year-old job for 12 hours of labour everyday, but instead, she has exchanged it for Bundles of Joy.