this world

the first week of school is over.  it has been a very tough week.  my manger at the school had a son who had surgery that was totally unplanned and she was out all week.  this left just two of us to run the entire child nutrition department for 539 children and over 50 staff members of my elementary school.  we did call in two subs but since they usually are totally unfamiliar with your workplace this is also tons of fun if you get what i am saying.  on top of this we had 115 kindergartners that know nothing about school.  if children have been in public daycare since they were six weeks old school is still different.  try bringing 25 five year olds anywhere by yourself!  remember now you do not yet know their names, their little nuances, their tendencies...nothing about them.  more tons of fun.  this brings me to this world.  this world we live in...this world that at times i really love for the right reasons...this world i love at times for the wrong reason.  i do get worldly at times and focus on the wrong things.  with new students you get new parents.  more tons of fun!!  most are very sweet and very kind but you do get a few who are.....out of their minds.  true is true, people.  then their are parents like this:  a daddy came in the lunchroom at 8:00 one morning toting a sleepy toddler with the weight of the world on his young shoulders.  daddy might have been 25 or 26.  he was very straightforward with me and said, "Ma'am  I don't have a job and my little girls first day is today in kindergarten.  I don't have any money....will she get lunch?"  he broke my heart.  here is a single daddy raising two kids, no job...desperate.  he asked if our school offers after school care.  i said it does.  he said he had a good interview that day.  i asked him his first name.  he said "Nick".  i told nick that i would be praying for him.  he was so grateful.  this world....is so sad.  we struggle so hard.  he just wants to work so he can provide for his babies.  to do the right thing.  where is mom???  i have no clue...and i don't really want to know because i may form an opinion that is unkind to say the least.  then came the call....  on friday morning my coworker, janet, answered the phone.  it rings approximately 853 times a day!!!  we hate phones.  a frantic daddy is on the phone she says and wants to talk to you.  the major job i have is taking care of student accounts.  i picked up the phone and this pitiful man started "speed talking".  you know when you are upset or very nervous and you talk super fast?  that was this man.  he told me a horror story of how he had just got custody of his niece the day before and that today was her first day at our school.  he told me she was just five.  FIVE. 5 years old.  understand.  he proceeded to tell me that the child custody services had placed her with him because her daddy had sexually abused his child and that the mom, his sister, was unfit.  "can she get free lunch, ma'am??"  he told me her food stamp number, he told me her file case number.  he told me all of this in about a minute.  when he took a breath i explained to him that with food stamps free breakfast and lunch is automatic.  do not worry about that.  but then i told him that was all i needed to know.  this world....that i hate.....  she is five......what kind of daddy does this?  i don't know.  not a human one.  a monster one.  a satan driven one.  this phone call made me hate this kind of daddy.  i saw the little girl later.  at lunch.  wild eyed and frightened.  she is five.  only five and her eyes told me a story in a second.  i hope one day this little girl meets the best daddy...Our heavenly Father....God Almighty....The Ancient Of Days.  this world is not my home and one day the Ancient of Days will remember the hurts we went through and wipe away all tears  and there will be no more sadness, sorrow or death.  it will be His world.