My rebel with a cause!

Today my oldest son stayed home from school.

He's been suffering from a particularly nasty cold, and he needed an extra day for "down time".

Early this morning, my son and I found ourselves sitting on the couch, when out of the blue, he asks me why his Grandmother (now deceased) was so mean.

Just so you know, my mother was a mean woman....a very mean woman; but as with most people, there was also a little bit of goodness mixed in with her mean spiritedness.

I wanted my son to understand this about his Grandmother.

So, I explained a little bit about my mother; and as I did, I told my son about her childhood, her early challenges, her hurts and her pains. I explained that my mother had always been head strong and a bit of a rebel.

"Am I like my Grandmother?" he asked.

"No Son, you are not. You are kind, and you are compassionate in a way your Grandmother wasn't."

"No Mom. I mean, am I a rebel?"

This question caught me by surprise, and when I looked into his sweet hazel eyes, I saw how he was aching to define himself in a way that asserted his individuality, and affirmed his uniqueness. In that instant, I experienced again, as I had in my own youth, that intense desire to be different, to be revolutionary; and I understood in a very profound way, what it was my thirteen year old son was asking.

"Ohhh, Son!" I said softly, "Don't you see that you already are a rebel?"

"Me?"

"Yes you."

"How am I a rebel?"

"Well, think about it. How many of your peers choose to love rather than to hate; and to understand, rather than to be understood? How many of your peers have already committed themselves to serving others?"

"Not many."

"But you have; and by doing this, you have modeled yourself after the greatest "revolutionary" human history has ever known, Jesus Christ! This world is a better place because you truly care about and accept other people. I think this qualifies you to be as much of a rebel in our time, as Christ was in His!"

"Ohhhh, I get it!" he replied softly.

And do you know what? He really does "get it".

I only wish more of us did......