Once there was a tree...

It's that time again. Time to redecorate our doors in celebration of fall and thanksgiving. Rather ironic here, since it neither feels like fall nor do Hondurans celebrate Thanksgiving. But nonetheless, there are fall leaves, turkeys, pumpkins, and pilgrims appearing around our school as teachers gradually get their doors finished (note: turkeys cooked are "done," work gets "finished" ; P )

Being the fairly non-creative person that I am, it took me a while to come up with an idea for my new door decoration, but I settled on a Giving Tree theme...and then scrambled to find a copy of the book to read to my students (thank you to Kristi for lending me her personal copy!) 

Once there was a tree...                                                                                                

If you haven't read this book, you should. It's a timeless and beautiful story of the love between a boy and a tree. The tree and the boy play together, but as the boy grows up, though, he grows apart from the tree, distracted by the cares of life. However, the tree loves the boy so much that she only wants him to be happy, and will do everything possible to make him so. Although the boys distance from her makes her sad, she gives of herself sacrificially to him until she has nothing left to give.  

On Thursday I read this book to my students and we talked about how it related to Thanksgiving--focusing especially on the giving part rather than the thanks part. We also talked about how it points to Christ and his sacrificial love toward us, and how we too are called to love others sacrificially as Christ loved us, or as the giving tree loved the boy. I asked them to think about two things: first, who in their lives loves them like the giving tree--parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, etc. They had to only think of one person, so long as it was not God. The second thing I asked them to think about was someone they could love like the giving tree, and how they might show that love towards that person. On Friday, on a bunch of cut out apples, I had them write on one side "I am thankful that _____________  loves me like the giving tree." On the other side, they needed to write "I can love ______________ like the giving tree by...[and list practical ways to show that love]." 

For the first side, I got a lot of the typical but still touching answers-- moms, dads, grandparents, and a few scattered siblings. On the second side, again, it was usually family members (one or two friends listed), with a variety of ways on how to show love: hugging and kissing them, saying good morning, making food for them, giving them gifts, respecting/obeying them, getting good grades, sharing with them, playing with them, and even dying for them.  These apples will be going on my door  and hopefully throughout the next month or so I'll be challenging them (and hopefully equipping them as well) to show love to the person they thought of as well as to perform other random acts of kindness for family, friends and/or teachers. 

My favorite apple of all: a student who wrote: "I can love Miss De Boer like the giving tree by: not disrespect she, obey she, give she a surprise, and be with she when the bad days come."

Some bad days have already come, and more will be coming I am sure, but it is the students like that that make it all worth it. I am thankful for my students who love me like the giving tree, and I pray that I will learn how to love them sacrificially in return.