(by Geoff Brown)

“Uh, Teacher, I think you need to see this.”  It was the shrill note of alarm if the aide’s voice that caused the preschool teacher to stop what she was doing and divert her attention.  In the nick of time, I might add.

Little Billy was sitting at the classroom’s coloring station.  (Life was much simpler when we all sat at coloring stations, wasn’t it?)  Somehow–and I’m convinced this is innate behavior, something that kids are born knowing–Billy had positioned himself at the table so that both the aide’s view and the teacher’s view were obstructed.  He then grabbed a bright blue Crayola marker and began working feverishly to color his entire left arm blue.  By the time the aide had caught on to Billy’s colorful caper, he was up to his sleeve, nearly two-thirds of the way through an improvised prison tat.

But, the teacher knew just what to do.  “Billy, I can see what you are doing.  Do you think that coloring your arm blue is a good idea?”  This tact in questioning is a solid routine; it helps the students to see the error of their ways.  It gets the job done.  Nearly every time.  Nearly.

Billy paused amidst his feat of autonomous artistic expression and his face grew contemplative.  He was being genuinely reflective.  “Yes,” he said after some thought.  “It is a good idea.”  His little mind continued to process, he became emboldened, “And, I think it might be the best idea ever.”

Once we’re done laughing, in Billy’s defense, we should probably consider the relative merits of the thirty-six months that this little preschool perpetrator has been on planet Earth so far.  If we’re honest and gauge Billy’s thirty-six months against the entire span of human history, the truth is that this particular set of thirty-six months really does not rank very high on humanity’s list of most momentous months.  In fact, I cannot help but wonder if Billy is right.  Unfortunately, this might actually have been the best idea that I’ve also seen in the last thirty-six months.

But, here’s the thing.  We’re not a blue arm school.  We’re just not.  If Billy would just stop and look around, he would see there is nobody out on that playground or in his classroom with a blue arm.  It’s just something you don’t do.  People are going to look at you funny.  The student handbook doesn’t say it’s forbidden per se, but it has to be implied in there somewhere.  Somewhere.  I think.

Speaking of good ideas, there was a beautiful moment wherein a God desperately and crazily in love with fallen humanity had the idea to become one of us in order to help us understand true Love.  But, if you put yourself in that first century story–a story of miracles, fishermen, shepherds, angels, miracles, and more–I think Jesus may have had a blue arm.  The more I consider it, I’m pretty sure He did.  You can’t just walk around all over the place telling people that you’re God’s Son, doing miracles and whatnot,  and saying that you’re the Guy that created everything.  People are going to look at you funny.  You know, blue arm crazy.

As we each look at our kids, sometimes we wonder if our kid is the one that is blue arm crazy.  You know what I’m talking about–all the other kids seem normal and we can’t help but reckon that our kid is the one blue arm kid in the bunch.  But, if I have learned anything in the years of doing what I do, it’s that the blue arm kids are the ones that change the world.  How?  They look at it differently.  They see things in a shade that most of us don’t see.  They do odd things.  The sort of things that seem strange at first but eventually the rest of us catch up and finally realize, blue arm thinking is what is needed most in the world right now.

As parents, let’s consider not worrying quite so much about our kids’ blue arms.  In fact, you might even consider buying them a big box of bright blue Crayola markers.

Geoff Brown is the Superintendent of Northwest Christian School located in Phoenix, AZ. Northwest Christian School is one of the largest private Christian schools in the state of Arizona and the only ACSI Exemplary Accredited school in the state.

This post is sponsored by NCS Online. NCS Online is a fully online K-11th grade Christian school providing an online education that is rigorous, affordable, and rooted in Biblical worldview. To learn more about NCS Online, visit NCSonline.org.