Mary was Missing

Elias and I say our evening prayers together each night before bed in front of his self-constructed icon corner in his room. These include the Trisagion Prayers, a kind of free form whatever-comes-to-mind part, and then we finish up with singing "To Thee the Champion Leader." Some time last week we were singing this song and it struck me that there was no icon of Mary present to whom the song is addressed. I pointed this out to Elias and we agreed that this must be rectified as soon as possible.

The weekend came and went with the celebration of Theophany and the blessing of waters. Elias was able to acquire his very own bottle of Holy Water to put in his icon corner. He was sipping it frequently and I reminded him it had to last a whole year until next Theophany. He informed me he just wanted to use it to keep himself from getting sick. I left it at that with the assumption that kids oftentimes simply know what is spiritually appropriate when I do not with my jaded existence and repetitive stumblings. I figured if the bottle empties sooner rather than later we'll just cross that bridge when we get to it. Who knows? Maybe there will be more Holy Water under the bridge.

So then I got home from work today and found wrapping paper strewn throughout the kitchen. Elias came downstairs with something behind his back. He said, "Remember Daddy that we don't have Mary in our icon corner?" Yes, I told him I was aware of that. He then revealed what was in his hands, a beautiful little icon diptych of Mary and Jesus. As it turns out my parents were unable to attend his birthday a week and a half ago because everyone had gotten sick and so they did not make the trip. She couldn't wait for some undetermined future date that we would see them again and so she mailed his gift, the diptych.

We talked a little about how God uses others to show his love in a way that binds us all together.