"Crossings................."

One of the children in our unit at school, a Fourth Grade girl, approaches me almost every day after lunch wanting me to walk her around the building. She comes with her upper torso wrapped in a Velcro-secured blanket, its length short enough to allow her at least some liberty with her hands and the whole idea of being packaged in such manner initiated at her own request. Dialogue is usually accomplished via signing or picture cards; but, in this case, her wish for an excursion is made known by extending to me a pair of leather gloves brought in at the first of the year specifically to avoid being scratched on such occasions. The two of us, thus garbed, are a pair. Nonetheless, we make our rounds, three levels, upstairs and down, occasionally taking one of the elevators, often stopping at the old room to which she was formerly attached, interested in whatever is going on there at the time. Today, however, for some reason a poster across the hall from that location caught her eye and for at least ten minutes she sat in a chair positioned just outside that door staring at the image of an adult hand reaching down to take a smaller one attempting to span the gulf between. "Touch the future. Communicate today", it read; but the words were beyond her comprehension and I had no idea of what was going through her mind. My own thoughts, though, were drawn to the truth that this old man's ability to connect with her depends on my reaching, as well, for His grip, His wisdom, and His influence as I go...