Admittedly, I initially thought, "This is the calm before the storm. Come the first days of school, quiet stillness will be long forgotten. Enjoy the silence while it lasts."
Moments later, though, I caught a vision through the windows of another classroom. Even though not a single student was around to fill the air with her voice, plop a rear end down in those seats, or strew her backpack contents over the tables, the room was a flurry of activity.
It was anything but empty! Prayers for the students offered by teachers and parents hovered in the air. Excited anticipation placed itself on the seats in the front row, while fear claimed the spots in back. The lofty goals and dreams for future success had written themselves all over the boards. Stacked up high on the tables were stories, of both joy and hardship, that each student would experience through the school year.
In these very first days of school, I have seen this vision becoming reality as the rooms fill with physical bodies when the bells ring. In a way, maybe that reality is part of catching glimpses of God, going in and out of the doors with the students, filling the seemingly empty spaces around them, calling them to live out their fears, hopes, joys, sorrows, and anything else filled with Him too.
