Leap Day

Just four weeks ago, they were knee-deep in summer. Today, they start back to school.

Big kids, that's what I've got. No longer do they drink from sippy-cups or sit in a car seat or watch Clifford. Well, sometimes they still watch the big red dog. Now they listen to Hannah Montana and play gamecube and laugh at adult humor. Whew! Too fast, too soon. I think they're ready for this day, but I'm not. But I'm partly to blame.

The doctor let me cut the umbilical cord on all our kids. I released them into this world. Blake has some words that always went through my head as I was handed the scissors: My mother groaned, my father wept. Into the dangerous world I leapt. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything and I always encourage expectant fathers to do the same.

I'm going in to work a little late this morning; my cutting skills are needed again. They needed to be released from the warm womb of summer, set free into the rhythm of the school year. Their mother will groan. It's hard this year as well, because our youngest starts kindergarten. And she's the last one. Their father will weep. I'm not sure if it'll hit me there on the playground or not. If it does, I'm just gonna cry, masculine etiquette be damned. They will be leaping into the dangerous world yet again and I want to be there when they jump. You see, I'm partly to blame.

Is it a dangerous world? Yeah, it is. We still sit in the floor and play Uno, but there are registered sex offenders in our area. We still kiss and hug everybody before bed, do the tickle monster some nights too. But there are also men and women dying daily in Iraq and Old Navy blue jean commericals that have nothing to do with blue jeans. They'll spend recess on the swings many days, but they'll have friends who think they're too big to swing and want to do other things during recess.

God of backpacks and lockers and new tennis shoes and first days of school, please watch over my children this day. They are leaping into it once again. I believe You go before them in all things, from language skills to lunch. It is a dangerous world you've created, Lord. No doubt. But it's also a beautiful world. Maybe You felt this way when Adam and Eve leapt into the land east of Eden; Your kids, going off to school. As You stood there, hands blood wet from cutting them loose, I wonder if You wept? I wonder if You felt partly to blame?