Spelling Bee

When I was in the sixth grade at Hershey Middle School, I was the typical geeky kid with a big head, goofy teeth and a subpar athletic ability.

Well, come to think of it, maybe I wasn't typical. I don't remember many kids with heads as large as mine. To this day I still can't wear a decent hat without my wife shaking her head in mock sadness.

But I digress.

I was a doofus of a kid, making it by in classes and being ignored mostly by the Inner Sanctum of cool kids. Especially the girls.

That is, until I won the school spelling bee.

Yeah, baby.

That was grand. The school held the whole event in a community center theater (Could anything be more cool? Could anything be more intimidating?) and lined us kids up in rows at the front of the auditorium. One by one we went through the agonizing process of taking on words that suddenly became enemies. We had to take them on in the public field of battle.

And, for once, I won.

I can remember my last word for the win: "commercial."

Oooooooh, man. What a feeling. I finally won something.

I remember standing next to the second place winner, whose name I only remember as "Dave", alongside the principal of the school, a kindly bald man who always wore bow-ties (He wore a red and green polka-dotted one for Christmas, which gave us schoolkids no end of delight) . I won a Roget's Thesaurus, which took me about five years to understand what it was to be used for. Never mind that, though. I won.

I entered into the realms of celebrity-hood. Kids waved to me in the hall. Teachers patted me on the back and smiled. Even the lunch lady congratulated me and called me by name.

The Beautiful Kids asked me into their group.

But after a flighty day of head-rushing excitement, I soon came to the realization. I was not as smart as I was made to look. I couldn't even fool myself. I hit a good run of words that were within my capabilities, and I didn't freeze on stage. That was it. A week later in the State Spelling Bee first round, I realized how stupid I really was.

I came to discover - as we all do sometime in our lives, many times more than once - that I was not the invulnerable, independent superior being I'd like to think I was. I just received a big batch of grace. I realized that it was not my prowess, but by the grace of God I won. There were numerous kids smarter than me. And I realized something else, as the flock of cooler kids came by to absorb me into their Winner's Circle.

I didn't want to be with them.

I found out that God drops occasions of grace into our laps to encourage and sustain us, and to brighten our walk once in awhile.

What I won was not by my superhuman merit. It was by effort, yes, but also - I believe truly - a time for God to give me a nice gift I hadn't expected.

It was a small lesson, but a worthwhile one. And a nice diversion from Grammar, which I hated.

This goodness from God was one of the small directional signals that led me to see how He really was, and that path eventually led me to salvation.



Gen. 49:25 - "From the God of your father who helps you, And by the Almighty who blesses you {With} blessings of heaven above..."