The Tooth Fairy Failure

We experienced a joyous moment in our home yesterday.  Several weeks ago, Eliana noticed her tooth was slightly loose.  Finally, after weeks and weeks of wiggling the tooth, it was loose enough to be pulled.  I gingerly tied a string to it, and with a quick snap of my wrist, out it flew.  Simple!

Before bed, Eliana sat inspecting her tooth for quite awhile, then gently tucked it underneath of her pillow, hoping that by morning her tooth would be replaced with a wonderful surprise...a one dollar bill!  After praying, I kissed her upon her forehead and watched as her hand slid up underneath of her pillow to touch the tooth one last time before she drifted off to sleep. 

When Ellie woke up this morning, she ran into the room where I stood, "The tooth fairy forgot to come last night,"  she disappointingly said, as she held up the baggie containing her tooth for me to see.   I felt terrible!

The truth is, my children have a horrible tooth fairy!  I have thought many times that she should probably be fired.  Here is a partial list of how the tooth fairy at our house has failed miserably at her job over the last several years:

    1.   Often times she doesn't show up...too busy with other things I guess.

    2.   When she does show up, she makes such a racket that the children are roused to a semi-state of wakefulness, opening their eyes to look around as the tooth fairy tries to become statuesque in the dark so as not to be noticed. 

    3.   A few times, she has even carelessly left the retrieved tooth lying upon the kitchen table, only to be found eventually by the children. 

    4.   She often times has no money and has to "borrow" a buck from one of the children until pay day. 

    5.   The tooth fairy is not always able to find the tooth, so she just leaves it there, along with the one dollar bill.  (Imagine Isaac's confusion and surprise at finding both the tooth and the one dollar bill under his pillow.)

Yep!  I think if I were my children, I would fire that awful tooth fairy!  She may be great at other things, but obviously collecting teeth is not one of them.  

I apologized to Ellie for the tooth fairies negligence, hugged her, handed her fifty cents (which is all I could find), and reminded her of how much I love her.  Ellie paused for a moment and then with words overflowing with grace she said, "It's okay that YOU forgot mommy.  I know you love me.  And, this just means that I get to look at my tooth a little longer.  Everybody forgets things."  

Even as I rewrite her words, tears begin to well up in my eyes.  I am reminded of all of the times that I have been harsh with my children when they haven't performed to my standards, or when they are slow to understand what I am asking of them.  And, yet Ellie's response was so different than mine.  She was so quick to forgive, so quick to overlook my faults, and so quick to bring encouragement instead of criticism.  

I am certain that God was smiling down upon Ellie as she responded so graciously to the forgetful tooth fairy.  After all, Ellie's response reflected the very heart of God towards us, HIS children.  Psalm 145:8-9 gives us a small glimpse of the gracious heart which God has towards us.  It brings me so much encouragement to read it...

"The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works." 

I am thankful that Ellie was so gracious towards the forgetful, unreliable tooth fairy; but most of all, I am so thankful for God's amazing grace towards me as HIS child.  To end, I would love to share a quote from Charles Spurgeon about the amazing grace of God.  I pray it will forever resonate within my heart, and within yours as well. 

"The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them."