Praying for Caterpillars

 I did something this week that I never thought I would do.  .  . I have taught kindergarten long enough to KNOW without a doubt that something unexpected is going to happen, but I was NOT prepared for this happening.  Last week we received our caterpillars. The class was ecstatic (they decided that the caterpillars should be our class pet and that they needed names).  All last week we watched them crawl around their little home and grow bigger.  This week tragedy happened . . .  The jar of caterpillars got knocked off the bookcase.  Trying to be super teacher (picture me running and diving to catch the jar) I tried to catch the jar but I forgot one very very important fact – I am a CLUTZ!  Not kidding I really am, when the class was talking about the meaning of the word “Clumsy”  one of my sweet kiddos explained it as “you know what Miss Chapman does when she trips over things and drops things.”  So spectacularly, worth of a movie, instead of catching the caterpillars and saving the day, OH NO what did I do?  I hit the jar of caterpillars into the shelf and then they landed with a THUD!  There was a gasp of my students . . . and I felt like throwing up.  I quickly picked the jar up and in a very cheerful voice said, “they are OK.”  One boy, “Miss Chapman, they were crawling around this morning and now they are not!” Sure enough, no crawling for these critters.  I responded with, “Humm I think they are sleeping,  we should let them rest.”  We had to go to PE and Music so I hurried the kiddos out of the room.  When I came back and more closely examined the poor caterpillars one looked ok and three were bleeding!  Did you know that a caterpillar could bleed?  I had never really thought about it before but I got an up close view. 

I have prayed for some pretty interesting things in my life.  While living in Central Asia, I prayed that I could remember the Russian word for cucumber, I have prayed for a parking place.  I know that God listens and lots of times, he and I have really great, deep talks but on this day, I prayed for caterpillars.  Oh yes I did.  I prayed that God could fix the caterpillars and that he could help my kiddos be ok if the caterpillars all died. You see, it is a BIG deal in kindergarten to have caterpillars and the kiddos had been so excited about watching them turn into butterflies.   I have a few kiddos who are going through some hard things right now and it broke my heart to think that we were about to have a hard thing happen at school.  (I know you might think I am going overboard here, but you come tell a kindergarten class that their caterpillars are dead and then we can talk!) So I prayed for those silly little caterpillars, I really really prayed for them. 

This morning, I reluctantly checked on the caterpillars and much to my delight, we have TWO living caterpillars.  Compared to the five I thought were dead, two living is a BIG deal!!! 

You can imagine my relief.  In the scheme of things, caterpillars are really NOT a big deal.  Way better things are going to happen this week and way harder things are going to happen to. But how sweet is it that we serve a God who listens to the big AND small requests.  He is powerful and can part seas but he is compassionate and cares about little things as well.  I needed that reminder this week.  A reminder that we serve a LIVING God who is near. Funny how it started with praying for caterpillars and turned into a reminder of God's character and nearness!