Photo courtesy of Minnesota Public Radio
Reed was passionate about prayer. For someone so young, I was amazed at his ability to have conversations (prayer) with God. When he heard about a national day of prayer led by students, it was game on for him. What was his first step? Of course, he asked me and a group of mommas to pray during our weekly prayer time. We obliged and that got the ripple started. One momma prayed with other mommas who shared that information with their kids. That was five years and about a week ago.
What transpired next was an avalanche of response. Thankfully, everyone was in support of the idea. Reed created some posters to hang at school. He got approval to hang them. He recruited some of the other kids to be prayer leaders. He encouraged kids to come and pray. He challenged his Christian friends to “Be bold and courageous”.
They were. Our school kids hadn’t organized a See Ya at the Pole event in many, many years. But through the faith and dog-on-a-bone persistence of one boy, it happened. In the first year of bringing back the day, there were about 20 Lakeview Lakers joined in unison praying to God about their classmates, teammates, teachers, staff, administrators, and school board.
Reed didn’t dream up the idea of See Ya at the Pole, but he was inspired by it. He didn’t have any real leadership experience because he was only a 7th grader, but he had the faith of a mustard seed. He realized that kids praying for kids and for the school was a great idea. To God, I doubt Reed’s lack of credentials made his passion any less credible.
In the years since Reed’s death, the See Ya at the Pole date has continued. It has been amazing to know the event has flourished at our school. Reed’s faith stone simply started the ripple. Friends and siblings have made the ripples grow larger and larger.
So in two days that ripple is going to go nationwide, as the annual See Ya at the Pole Day will be held. If Reed were here, he would say to his fellow Lakers, “Come and pray on Wednesday at 7:30 am. It’s going to rock!”
I am certain that Reed would care less for the days that the flag flew at half-mast for Jesse, Hunter, Emilee, and himself, and he would care a lot more about the days when that same flagpole was surrounded by his peers and siblings standing in faith and love, praying for each other.