He’s Coming!
I’ve been substitute teaching once in a while during these first couple years of retirement. Even though I only substitute at the school where I most recently taught, not all the students know me and I’m not able to establish relationships like I once did as a full time teacher. This factor makes controlling a classroom of energetic youngsters extra challenging. I remember fondly the days when my students responded so quickly and cooperatively to my directions and, so it seemed, to my very presence. I ran a tight ship but they knew that I loved them and was there to help them learn and feel safe. Although I still have a few tricks up my sleeve, those days are mostly bygone.
The attached photo is just a memory now. Once in a while during my full time teaching days, I would need to leave that classroom for a moment–perhaps to grab something from the printer in the next room or check in with a colleague. If the students were highly engaged in the task at hand, they often never knew I stepped out. But sometimes it only took a couple of observant kiddos to recognize my absence and the whole place would fall apart. I would approach the doorway to the sounds of a party going on, followed by the hushed warning of “SHHH! She’s coming!”, then a sudden pitter patter of child-sized feet frantically scurrying back to their previous locations and activities. Although inside I was likely giggling to myself at the absurdity of it all, I would enter the room again with my disappointed teacher look. This was often followed by a brief but meaningful conversation about what the word character means. I’ve heard it said that character is who you are when no one is looking. Hmmm…
In most schools now there is usually some sort of social-emotional curriculum that is mandated. For most of my career I never had a curriculum but I was teaching these concepts all day every day as situations occurred–and they always did. I prefer to call it “character education”. As a follower of Jesus Christ, I could not share my Christian religious views, but I certainly could share my beliefs when it came to how we treat each other. At the beginning of each school year the students would help me create a list of rules or expectations for our classroom. I would help them with the wordsmithing and, inevitably, we would end up with the Golden Rule on that list: Treat others the way you wish to be treated. The children understood all the rules, but they’re kids and stuff happens. Those mini-lectures about character came up because I would explain to them that their character–who they really are inside–is revealed when no one is watching. Or perhaps when the teacher isn’t watching. I would admit to them that their various behaviors when I leave the room tell me a lot about who they really are inside.
How about us? What do we do when no one is watching? What is our desired activity when we are all alone and have the freedom to spend our time doing whatever we want? The truth is, of course, we are never alone. “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:24) Our Father God knows what we’re up to and when Jesus returns there won’t be time to warn everyone and quickly get ourselves together to look good. “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man…Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” (Matthew 24:36-29, 42)
Let’s carefully consider our own characters and seek to become more and more like Jesus–whether we are with others or not. And when our Savior returns, may He find us ready and watching.
“SHHH! He’s coming!”
