12.13.09

Heart of An Angel ..

Posted in Christmas, Heart Tugs, Inspirational, Judging Others, Love, Special Needs at 8:04 pm by Sandi Rauwolf

This weekend we were headed out of town for our annual trip to Indy to see Santa at the Zoo. The last two years I promised myself I would buy some warm boots so my focus wouldn’t be on the icicles forming on my toes but instead on the Spirit of the season. So before we headed out of town, we stopped at the store to buy some boots for me. As I was taking off a pair of boots and placing them in a box, I felt a tug on my heart guiding my eyes up and towards the beginning of the shoe aisle. I looked up and saw a mom walking down the aisle with her little girl’s feet on her feet. Her tiny arms were stretched up with her hands held tightly by her mom’s. Every step the mom took the little one was able to take a step with her. The girl’s hair was blonde and hung over her face as she looked down at her feet.

I finished putting the boots in the box and as they walked closer I felt my heart overflowing with so much love. The tug on my heart then said, “Look closer.” At that moment, my eyes met the eyes of this precious little angel. She had the most beautiful blue eyes you could ever imagine. I stayed knelt down and began talking with her, “Hi honey, what’s your name?” The little girl tried to form the words to say her name but couldn’t. Her mom then softly responded, “Her name is Jenna.” I said, “Well, it is great to meet you Jenna. You have a very special soul, you know that?” I could see her eyes light up and her mom said, “Yes, she sure does.” Jenna then began to point to her left shoe all excited. I could feel her heart communicating directly with mine. It felt like I was living her excitement right along with her. I said, “You are excited because you got some new shoes.” Her mom then said, “Well, she actually only had to get a new left one.” Although the girl couldn’t speak, our hearts were able to communicate perfectly. The love and excitement that filled my heart and the store from this little angel was amazing.

I asked Jenna, “How old are you honey?” Her mom then said, “She will be 18 this Saturday.” I said, “Wow! Eighteen that is great. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and a lot of fun!” I couldn’t stop smiling just feeling so much gentleness, kindness, and love from this little angel. Her mom said to me, “Thank you so much for talking to her that was really nice of you.” I hesitated for a minute and thought why wouldn’t I talk with her then at that very moment it was as if I could see her thru the eyes of how most people in the world saw her. This little angel had a disorder of some type that prevented her from growing like other children. She was the size of about a 1 ½ year old. She was going to turn 18 years old Saturday, not 18 months. She could not walk on her own. She had no teeth on the top and a few scattered teeth on the bottom, spaced out and growing in every direction. Her skin was tight like leather so the bottom of her eyelids were pulled down as if someone was intentionally trying to make a strange face by taking their fingers and pulling the bottom of their eyelids down. My heart swelled. I smiled at her and said, “No, thank YOU for talking with me. This little angel just made my day today. The world needs to be filled with more hearts like hers, it would change the world.” Her mom smiled really big and I could feel Jenna’s heart smile even bigger. I felt something inside of me change that day as if the love from that special little angel brought my heart to an even higher level of love. I didn’t do anything special, I just saw her for her heart and not for her circumstances.

I was then reminded how important it is that we see people for their hearts and not what’s happening on the outside. If we can see every person as the love that is within each and every heart (no matter how buried it may be) then soon the world will be filled with hearts like Jenna’s.

It reminds me of a story I once heard about a new teacher. She was given a list of her students and noticed they all had their IQ scores to the right of their names. She thought, “Wow! What an opportunity to teach such bright kids.” She met each one of them and saw them for nothing less than the IQ scores that she saw by their names each and every roll call. At the end of the first quarter the principal called a meeting with her. She was asked how she is obtaining such great academic achievements with these students. She told them it wasn’t her at all but thought it was brilliant to put such highly gifted kids in a class together. The principal looked at her puzzled. The teacher went on to share all of the things the students were doing, their progress and what she expected by the end of the year. She said, “Thank you for sharing their IQ scores with me. It was a great help having them noted next to each student’s name.” The principal looked at her and said, “Those aren’t their IQ scores but their locker numbers.” The teacher looked at him in amazement. He then began to share with her that she had been given a class full of children who had been struggling with grades and behavior issues. They had never taken interest in school and actually none of the other teachers were able to reach them because they had so many issues. She was shocked because she had never had a problem with any of the children. The principal said what she had achieved was remarkable.

The powerful lesson about this story is the only thing that had changed was someone’s perspective. The new teacher believed in them and saw the good in them. As a result, amazing things happened … each kid became who they were meant to be.

I want to encourage you to see each person for who they were meant to be by looking into their hearts and right past any outside appearance or circumstances. When we decide to change our perspective to see only the good within others, we then can experience the same gift of peace and joy as felt thru hearts of angels like Jenna. Who’s the Jenna in your life?

With much love!

Sandi Rauwolf

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