Problem Paper

Among first and second graders it is not unusual. The slipped marker and consequent dismay: "I ruined it!" Loathing the stray mark or misshaped creature on their former masterpiece, their eyes fill with angry tears and their faces crease with frustration. I've tried to hearten them: "Don't give up! Maybe you can turn it into something else. Sometimes mistakes can be turned into something that makes the picture even better!" But they don't buy it,and I'm not quite sure I do either. Inevitably the paper ends up discarded. Sometimes the artists are too discouraged to try again that day. From my adult perspective, I crease my brow and smile a little because no one but a first or second grader expects that first or second grader to be perfect. For the rest of us, the rabbit with round ears is endearing though difficult to identify.

One thing I notice over and over as I work with children is that the problems of adult humanity appear in their infant forms in communities of children. The thing I shake my head over is a less sophisticated form of the same thing I do. I, too, rue the blot and forget everything good still in the picture. I want to give up and throw it away. I want a clean paper. But that is not what we get. Thankfully, the Master Artist knows how to turn blemishes into something better. Under His hand, we cannot give up.