I have a very compassionate little girl. And I don't know where she gets it. She has always been very concerned with the baby crying when we are in public or the child who is inconsolable at the church nursery. She asks me, "What he cryin' about?" She even goes over to softly, slowly pet the distraught child to bring him comfort.
This compassionate child has just spent the better part of the week with sick parents (allergies, mostly) and she has been an angel. Early Friday morning, Daddy still had a fever, and Evangeline made him "breakfast snacks" and gently laid them on his blankets in the mostly dark den while he struggled to be awake at all. This week, while I was collapsed on the couch in a fog of congestion, she got her doctor kit and took my blood pressure and gave me a "shot" in the head. When I have been sore, she would kiss it and tell me, "OK? Now you are all better." I started having a coughing fit tonight, and she handed my glass of water and told me, "Drink you water to make you stop coughin'. Slow down, Mama, slow down." It's actually hard for her to understand that there are some hurts that a kiss and some toy food wrapped in a sock won't fix.
And I have to be careful not to abuse her sympathetic impulses. After a long battle between us, if I ultimately break down and cry, she immediately stops her own screaming to say, "What's wrong, Mama? It'll be ok, Mama... You OK?" I can't use that sweetness to manipulate her into compliance, and I have to teach her (eventually) not to let others manipulate her this way, either.
What a mercy to have a child that isn't dragging us out of bed when we are sick but wants to cuddle (and watch movies, of course) and help us to feel better. What a sweet mercy.