Nine.

This is a story that has sort of melted together for me in the last few weeks.

I teach a ½ hour Bible lesson to Grade 4 children every Friday afternoon. On the first day about half of my 15 students volunteered that they had divorced or separated parents. This is a story that I have written based on some of their sharing, and my imagination.

Nancy is nine. She just took off her bracelet…

Nancy still remembers the day Dad told her that Mom was going to live in another house. Mostly she’s used to it now. Some things are still strange. Her Dad’s girlfriend, Susan, kisses her on the cheek every night. And when she stays at her Mom’s house she can tell that Mom’s been drinking a lot.

She doesn’t much mind the new friends that she is learning to call brothers – at least there is someone younger than her in the house now.

She remembers how at first after ‘the divorce’ she used to think that maybe it was her fault. She really wishes she could have been a better person so her parents wouldn’t have fought as much. Mostly, she’s come to accept that this is the way things are. It’s different but it normal.

A few months ago Dad’s girlfriend suggested that they should go to church on Sunday. Nancy hadn’t been to church for a long time. Of course at Christmas they go to Grandma’s church and her Dad makes her wear a fancy dress. She knows that she has been baptized. She’s seen pictures. She’s in the white dress and the pastor is holding her. Mom and Dad had told her this was very important. She really didn’t know why until they started going to church.

The first Sunday it was weird but she found out that some of her friends from school went to church too. It wasn’t long before they were going to church every Sunday. That’s when Nancy noticed a change in her Dad. The first big deal was that when he came to tuck her in one evening he wanted her to pray to God. She told him that she did not know how to pray.

So he prayed.

And Dad seemed different altogether and she couldn’t quite figure it all out.

One night he overheard Dad talking to his girlfriend.

The next morning all the guessing was gone. As Dad drove her to school that morning he asked her if she would like it if he married Susan. He explained that since they had been going to church he had realized that his relationship with Susan needed to be more committed. He said that getting married would be better for Nancy. Nancy was confused. Would she have to call another woman Mom?

All day her brain spun.

When she got home she talked to Susan. Susan told her that she knew she would never really replace her real Mom but that she loved her. Then she said something strange. She said, “Your Dad and I just want to do what’s right – what Jesus would do.”

She had to admit she had really started getting excited.

That was a month ago.

Yesterday, her Dad walked in a told her he wasn’t sure that he could marry Susan. At least not in the way they had hoped. He told her it was complicated but it had something to do with the church they were going to.

Dad dried all day. For the first time, that Nancy could recall, Susan seemed angry…

That’s why Nancy took off the bracelet – the one Susan had given her on that day a month ago…

Nancy wasn’t sure she really knew what this all meant.

Nancy is nine.

In John 10:10 it says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”