Every single day, Elijah Isus Johnson wants to eat the following for breakfast:
One banana with peanut butter
2 eggs
a bowl of buckwheat grits or rice
an 8-oz glass of warm milk (after he has finished his 8-oz glass of water because otherwise he won’t drink the water which he REALLY needs for various health reasons I won’t list here).
99% of the time this is what he gets for breakfast. There have been a few occasions when I was out of something. Today was one of them.
After handing him his banana, I opened the peanut butter jar to find it empty. The pantry did not contain a new jar waiting in the wings. I braced myself for the onslaught of his accusing words, hate-filled glare and demand that I get some peanut butter. It didn’t come. He just looked surprised. I instantly began to pour milk: my good-faith offering to say that I knew he needed a little extra care to get over the peanut butter.
He took the banana and sat down. I started doing something else in the kitchen, and when the microwave stopped, I didn’t immediately remove the warmed milk and take it to him. A few seconds went by. He came into the kitchen and said, “Can I have my milk, please?” What in the world could be wrong with that?
Ah, but tone is everything. His words dripped with coded meaning. His tone was condescending and demanding. He was saying “What is wrong with you? You are not taking care of me. Why was my milk not served to me immediately?” His eyes and expression matched the tone. Accusing. I encounter this tone daily.
When Elijah began to reproach me with his, you-are-not-loving-me-enough attitude, I didn’t open my mouth because this is a silent day, and I am not speaking. Normally, I would have defended myself and instructed him in the way to communicate his feelings appropriately. But today I was silent. I chose the easy way and simply got him the milk. I walked outside to take care of the trash bins. I was fuming inside. I heard these words:
Like a lamb before the shearer, he was silent before his accusers. (Isaiah 53:7)
What is HE teaching me through this maddening child? This eye-rolling, sassy boy who has mistaken me for his slave. He is teaching me that I do not need to defend myself. That He will vindicate me. I am bearing reproach for the abandonment this child experienced for 10 years. I am giving him more than any mother or mother-figure has ever given him, yet I am accused for all of their shortcomings. I am condemned for not doing everything he wants, how he wants, when he wants.
I am forced to repay what I did not steal. (Psalm 69:4)
Not forced, really, but hemmed in. I do have a choice, but the choice not to do this is no choice I want. It’s the lesser of two evils: Reject this wounded child (NO!) or bear his wounds. I don’t really want to bear those wounds, because sometimes I feel as empty as that peanut butter jar. But, well, if those are the two options, I guess I will pick the latter one.
And as for teaching him how to treat me? Yes, this I must do. Yet, I cannot do it rightly when I am offended, angry, defensive. I must be willing to simply give the milk. Or I must be willing to be un-offended as I withhold the milk and invite him to ask in a way that allows me to give what he’s asked for. It sounds simple to my mind, but in the rage of being treated as nothing more than a means to an end, it is very, very complex. And hard. Don’t forget just plain hard.
The silence is a tool to move me further along this road of humility. It is a check to my reaction that allows me to choose a better response. Hearing is happening.