Evening quiet, closing the day – this was our family daily ritual. The gentle blending of two worlds – the hustle and bustle of the day, and the dormancy of the night, light and dusk, tasting life and dreaming, dreaming and believing… Something that seemed impossible to combine, there in the room of my, then eight-year-old daughter, became so natural in its essence, that I did not dare to disturb this harmony with doubts or disbelief.
Nor did I dare to trivialize the “Azorek issue.” Azorek. An inconspicuous puppy. A small plush toy. You could say – a plush toy like thousands of others. And yet in her space he had a place reserved just for him. Close by. He was by her side when she went to bed, he was during playtime, sometimes she took him to school or to a friend’s house. Azorek was always there. Like a good spirit accompanying her life story. He barely fit in the palm of her hand, yet he gave a sense of stability. Until the day came… when Azorek disappeared. He dissolved, dematerialized, was lost like a stone into water.
We searched the entire house, yard, garden, garage, car. Azorek was not there. We knew he got lost outside the house. The case was hopeless.
However, in that magical evening time, Azorek’s case was not dying. My daughter did not despair, but every evening, in her simple extraordinary prayer, she made a request to Heaven: “Lord God, I ask you to find Azorek.” Just that much. A few banal words from a child. Every evening. For six months. It was a bit like a mantra spoken as if without understanding or commitment. However, from time to time she would ask me: “Mommy, do you think Azorek will be found?” And I must confess that in those moments I simply lied to her, saying: “I don’t know Zosia.” Underneath this untrue confession was a rock-hard disbelief: “After all, it’s completely impossible! Since he’s not at home, so there’s no chance for him to be found.” And so every night my disbelief measured up to a simple believing call to the Creator.
Until the day came when my disbelief was shattered, yet continued to look on in disbelief. That day I was picking up my older son from school. He got into the car holding Azorek in his hand!!! And my disbelief seeing this miracle and taking him in its hands exclaimed again: “This is impossible!!! After all, it’s been six months, he was away from home all the time – IMPOSSIBLE!!!”
Sophie was very happy, but she was not as enthusiastic as my disbelief. She accepted this miracle as something obvious, like a Father fulfilling a child’s request. Like something she had no doubt about for the past six months. And from that moment on, in simple, banal words for the next six months, she said to the Father in heaven: “Lord God thank you for finding me Azorek.” And I, an art mom, teaching her daughter to pray, didn’t know how to put it all together in my heart… and how to find my own faith. Because I was standing a bit beside, with a feeling that I just didn’t fit in here. I was at that moment like a lost child… and at the same time I was wrapped in a special aura of a little girl’s thanksgiving. In my daughter’s room my most important lesson in faith took place and I felt the touch of Heaven.
