So tonight we had a wonderful night. My friends Jen and Dan left their kids with us for the day while they did the most hair raising race up Copper Mountain I've ever heard of. It included crawling under barbed wire through pits of mud, jumping over fire pits and crawling up and down piles of hay bales. Very entertaining in the retelling but it's not my story. After the race, they showed up with Mexican takeout from a great little restaurant in Erie and I made margaritas. We had a great night.
When the party was over, I'd had two margartias and Eden was missing the stone from one of her opal earrings. I decided to show them the special item from my jewelry box that had somehow survived for 26 of my 30 years. I showed them the ring my dear Granny gave me when I was four. I told them of how it was lost and then found again in the emergency room after my arm was broken when I was twelve. Then I showed them the charm from my first Mothers Day and told them it had at one time been lost for two years only to be found in the final clean out of the Durango before we sold it. Eden and I had a great connection through these stories and she felt more hopeful about finding the opal but then I showed them the single earring from the pair Jody had bought for me to match the ring they've seen me wear every day their entire lives. It devastated Eden but it showed her that sometimes thing turn out well, but sometimes you deal with disappointment.
Somehow, despite my slightly impaired state, the subject turned to my faith. And in a rare and completely open moment Eden said "Mom, part of me wants to get baptized but part of me doesn't." I said "I am so glad you told me that! I want to know when the day comes that you completely believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins. When you know that and you are completely sure, you'll be ready to get baptized. It's kind of like when you get married, you put your hand in the hand of a man and you promise that you will love him for the rest of your life and you'll never deny it to anyone. When you are ready to put your hand into Jesus' and make that promise Him, you'll be ready to be baptized." She looked at me with a dead serious stare and said "Mom, when you say it that way, I think I do believe it. But how are you sure that the Bible is the oldest book in the world? Have you read all of the old books to be sure?" I felt like I had just been hit between the eyes. I thought "okay, why did I think tonight was the night to drink two margaritas? How did I not consider that tonight might be the night that Eden reaches out to me for true faith and expect exceptional answers?" I looked into her luminous eyes and I said, "Eden, I have read old books, and yes I am sure the Bible is the oldest and I have just read alot of books in general, but do you know what? I'm going to find out what the oldest books are and be sure we find out all about them." She smiled with her pure simple confidence in me and said "what if they found a really old Bible? Wouldn't that be cool?" I said, "do you know what they did find?" She said "what?" I said "they found the dead sea scrolls, and they were written on papyrus" (I thought her eyes were going to pop out her head) and do you know what they found?" "What?" They found that the words on these ancient scrolls were the same as the Bible ours is translated from today. The words are verbatim, exactly the same!" I saw joy spring into her eyes and I knew, she isn't easy, she won't just believe what a person tells her to, but Eden will find her way to the truth and she'll have an unshakable foundation. So, to anyone wondering, no Eden won't get baptized this Sunday, but I'm pretty sure that when she does, she'll mean it with her heart, soul and mind. She has the most analytical mind I could ever imagine and she's amazing, simply amazing and wonderful.
And to anyone wondering about my emotional state, I cried several times tonight. The girls gave me several kleenexes and even took my glasses away at one point which was really a struggle because Kait temporarily lost one of the pieces of jewelry I was using as an example. LOL!
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