Rookies

A new bus driver has taken over the kids' bus route. J is very sweet and has a wonderful, engaging smile. She's new to the route AND new to driving a school bus. 

Rookie. Newbie. Perhaps a helmet with big green horns a la Deadliest Catch is in order.

In the one week, the kids have been late to school a few times because she's missed a stop and had to go around the block. It's a rural route. Around the block has a whole different meaning and time frame.

Last Thursday it was our turn. At the end of the day the bus came up the road and zoomed right by with me waving at the kids and the kids waving back.

And what's to be done in that situation. Really. What can be done? Is the drop off now going to happen after ALL the rest of the kids are dropped off? Will she find a way to turn around? Just go around the huge country block? Who knows. Going into the house means no one will be there when the bus does arrive so I sit back down on the waiting bench.

Surprisingly, there was no anxiety, no real worry that something had gone amiss, just a pondering of what would happen next and curiosity as to how the situation would resolve. Shoulders shrug and hands are tucked into pockets to wait.

It occurred to me then that J's situation is much like any rookie and especially a rookie follower of Christ.

We do our best. We try to do the "right thing" all the time but sometimes miss the stop. We're distracted. Even not so rookie Christ followers get distracted, miss the pick up or the drop off and have to go around the block and try again. We need to be prepared to make mistakes. To make apologies. To ask forgiveness and to carry on knowing full well we're likely to do it again.

In the end, J found a suitable driveway in which to turn around and immediately came back. A huge smile, an apology, a shrug of the shoulders and the kids were returned to me. There were jokes about her keeping my kids but it was too late for that.

"I was distracted by the snow" she said.

Aren't we all?