Going to School with Jesus

When I was three, my mother remarried Lucky, who delighted in beating my brother and me. There were many reasons, and the beatings occurred daily.

I tried hard to do perfectly everything I was told, but the rules shifted and changed: the order in which chores were to be done, what I had been told to wear, or when I was allowed to play.

The man took an interest in my education. I could read, so he decided I should automatically be able to spell every word I had read. He would fire words at me from one of my books and lash me with his belt for every mistake.

When I started school, a firm rule was set: five lashes for a B, ten for a C, twenty for a D, and fifty for an F. Every single day I brought home from two to five spirit-copied papers, simple arithmetic addition and subtraction problems, pictures with instructions to follow like “Color the robin’s egg blue.” A bad day at school or feeling sick all day had truly disastrous consequences.

My friend, Jesus, rescued me again and again.

I had met him in Sunday School when I was three, before the coming of Lucky. I didn’t know how to pray very well, so I accepted the capricious, daily beatings. But I could avoid the beatings for bad grades if I asked Jesus to go to school with me and help me get every answer right on every paper.

School became not only a haven, but a place of accomplishment, a place where I could feel good about myself; teachers appreciated me and helped me understand the hard parts without denigrating me.

I learned I could absolutely count on Jesus. I made nearly all A’s and loved studying, and gradually I learned to enlist Jesus for help in other areas of my life.

It’s true that I cried myself to sleep many nights of the week, those years, but I cried on Jesus’ shoulder and felt consoled and comforted. Somehow I had acquired a long view of life. I was able to reason with myself that Lucky’s atrocities would not last forever. I could grow up and get away from him. I just had to cling to Jesus and endure. And always, when I was at school or alone, I reveled in the beauty around me, and Jesus filled my heart with elation and joy.