$1.25

by James

Gideon was sad. I was thick in the midst of packing my things, surrounded by half-filled suitcases and piles of mismatched items. I didn't know where they were going to go. What suitcase should they be packed in? What closet would that suitcases be locked in? Where was the final closet in the final home that I was still searching for at the last point of our long dot-to-dot journey to Berat, Albania? Every item I owned could now lie at my feet in a pile and I was anxiously placing them next to each other in little rafts in an uncertain stream. And now my son was walking up to me crying.

We waved something in the air. "It isn't here."

"Gideon, use words, my man. I have a lot going on right now. What is missing?"

"Everything!" he groaned. "All of it." He held up a wallet with a red and blue fire truck on it. "I have been saving up my whole LIFE and now it is gone."

I waited as he opened the Velcro and held the wallet open towards me. It was empty. Somehow, through carelessness or miscalculation or some kind of innocent or malicious robbery, it was all gone.

"I'm so sorry," I said, and I pulled him into my arms as he sobbed. "It will be okay."

"But it took so long to save it all. My whole LIFE!"

"I know," I said. "How much was in there?"

He whimpered, "A dollar and a quarter."

There was a long silence. "A dollar twenty-five? That's what this is about?"

"Yes," he said softly. "Maybe fifty cents. I can't remember."

I held him out at arm's length and considered him for a moment. "I understand. It is okay to be sad. But, Gideon, it's going to be okay." I said. "I have a dollar fifty you can borrow until you find it."

He wiped his eyes and smiled just a tiny bit, but it was a smile of thanks even though the pain and disappointment were still heavy. Then he walked away and I was left looking at my piles of things. Where would I put them? Where was I going? What if I made a big mistake and lost my entire life savings of a dollar and a quarter out of my Velcro firetruck wallet? What if? What then? How could I?

Somewhere not far away I heard God laugh quietly as he held me to his chest and said quietly, "I understand. It's going to be okay."