a gift

Nick had a great time trick-or-treating. He had a creative costume, courtesy of a book of costumes Mariah had years ago. He was a "headless wonder"--a spooky looking critter "carrying" his head in front of himself. The trick is to put a box on his shoulders, with a hole in it for his head to stick out, and then dress the box like the top of a person--shirt, long coat--and let the head stick out through the buttons of the shirt/coat. Something read sticking up out of the top helps, too. He was scary, believe me. And he brought home a lot of candy.

Mariah, on the other hand, didn't dress up and didn't get any candy. She went and hung out at a friend's house and handed out candy--and found that that wasn't quite as much fun as trick-or-treating. (Is 14 too old?)

Nick felt bad for Mariah that she didn't have any candy, and told her he'd share. That was sweet enough. But this morning he got up and went immediately downstairs. There, he dumped all the candy he'd gotten on the floor, and sorted it out into four piles: one for each of us. Then he labeled four bags and put a pile of candy in each one. He shared it all out evenly.

I was amazed. I mean, no one told him he had to. And it's not like this is Mr. Perfect Child--he and his sister fight over stupid (and sometimes not so stupid) stuff all the time. He can be a whiner, a wild man, a pain of all sorts.

But this? Was a gift. Free grace, unearned. And all the more welcome for it.