Yesterday I went from one end of the life spectrum to the other. And my oldest child came with me.

My son and I attended the memorial service for his Cub Scout friend in the morning.
Then we jumped into the car, drove to Raleigh & attended the baby shower for my soon-to-be born niece.

We watched the world say goodbye to one young person and prepare to welcome a new one.
Tears to smiles, sad to happy, memories to anticipation; we walked the line from one end to the other all in one day.

Man was I tired at the end of the day. What about my boy though? How did he do?

Those of you who know me, know how old my oldest is...he is not an adult by any means.
However, he IS perceptive and more caring than any kid I have ever met.

So, I spent a good part of the memorial service wondering what was going through his mind.

How does he reconcile seeing this sadness in the morning, with an afternoon watching people play games and eat cake? What's more, does he connect any of this to my situation?

I know what I thought.

When I wasn't wondering about my son's state of mind, all I could think was that I was so glad that he did not have to go through TWO memorial services within less than 2 months. I couldn't keep my own situation out of the equation.

What did HE think about though? What impact did all of this have on my son?

I got my answer pretty quickly. After we were in the car for no more than 5 minutes, my son started crying. When I asked him, he admitted that he was sad thinking about what would happen to our family if I had died; and thinking about how much our lives would change now and get harder.

He got "it." He took the sense of finality at the funeral and connected it to what "could have been" in our case.

He understood the weight of the situation and in the car, my son finally let it out.

Now, he didn't blow it out, he didn't "break down." He teared up, cried a little & talked to me about how he felt. Like any pre-teen, my son spoke about his feelings...and then...let it drop. So, we didn't talk long about it, but I knew now that my boy realized how serious our family situation was 2 months ago, and he connected the dots yesterday.

Now, while I was tired after going from one extreme to the other, I have to thank God for that baby shower. The laughter and smiles (and some cake) let my son forget about the morning's tears and get back to being a young boy; smiling, having fun, and seeing family.

At the time I thought yesterday was to be a challenge for me. It was a long day. It was a day that  I thought I would need to do a lot of explaining about life and death to my son.

In reality, yesterday was a reminder that God brings us what we need.
Yesterday God brought my son JUST what he needed.

In the morning God gave him the opportunity to grow up a little; to let his feelings out. My son finally got to tell me how he was feeling and "let it out". He finally got to see the finality of it all.

In the afternoon, God gave my boy the opportunity to forget the tears of the morning; to play and laugh and have some cake.

After a sad morning, God gave my boy the chance to return to being...
...well...
...a boy.

God gave me just what I needed too; time with my kids, time with my wife, time to smile and time to be...
...well...
...a boy.

Good night and God bless.