It happened when she patiently waited for her first-grade student to tie his shoes. . .On the fifth try.

It happened when he kindly welcomed into his classroom the parent who’d chewed him out last week.

And again, when he calmly cleaned up Swimmy’s broken goldfish bowl after rough-housing fourth-graders knocked it over.

She “forgot” how many times her little second-grade student had screamed in her face, and took the small hand offered her on the way to the lunchroom anyway.

It happened when he high-fived his ninth-grade student for being trustworthy.

It happened as she watched her troubled twelfth-grade student walk across the stage to receive a diploma; she’d never stopped hoping for this moment.

And once more that awful day bullets flew – and the professor and assistant barred the door with their bodies while the students escaped out the window.

In all of these, teachers demonstrate love, and in so doing emulate the greatest teacher of all: Jesus.

Thank you, teachers.

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love rejoices in the truth, it always hopes, and it protects. Love never fails. –paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, Holy Bible  New International Version  Biblica, Inc.

originally posted May 11, 2020

In appreciation of my fellow teachers — I wrote you a book. Yes, for you. It will be available this May. Stay tuned!