And on the 8th day, God looked at those made in his image and said, “I need a caretaker.”

So, God made a teacher.

God said, “I need someone willing to get up before dawn, collect last night’s grading, kiss their family goodbye, teach all day at school, bring home more grading, eat supper, then go back to school and stay until 9 to watch a student’s basketball game.”

So, God made a teacher.

“I need someone with a voice loud and commanding enough to get the attention of rowdy sophomores, but gentle enough to comfort a tearful kindergartner on the first day of school,” God said. “Somebody who can call roll, and tie shoes, tame cantankerous children, come to meetings with open minds, embrace the new curriculum given to them and say they’re going to try it — and mean it.”

So, God made a Teacher.

God said, “I need somebody who can sit a the funeral home, hug grieving parents, dry their eyes, and say, ‘They were one of mine.’”

He said, “I need someone who can fix a flip flop with a paper clip, turn a classroom into a home, make a program costume out of brown paper sacks, hot glue, and prayers, who on the first week of school will be just as anxious and excited to start a brand new school year with brand new students as their students will be.”

So, God made A Teacher. God has to have somebody willing to hit the ground running each day to teach their students as much as possible, and yet stop mid-lesson to quiet the tears of a student who’d just lost their grandparent.

So, God made a Teacher.

God said, “I need somebody strong enough to teach life lessons along with algebra, yet gentle enough to listen and inspire, who will spend a well-deserved Saturday morning off at a student’s football game.

“It has to be somebody who would teach with grit and passion and not cut corners,” God said. “Somebody to teach and preach and love and care and smile and support and laugh and cry. To stand in the gap, and go above and beyond, and hide an extra snack in their desk for those that went without, and finish each school day telling someone else’s child, ‘I love you.’

“Somebody who greets their family with tired and loving eyes each evening,” God said. “Someone who would laugh, and then sigh, and then reply with smiling eyes, when their child says they want to spend their life being a teacher too.”

So, God made a teacher.

Drake Thomas is a behavior intervention specialist at the Cassville school district and is a Cassville High School graduate. He may be reached at dthomas@ cassville.k12.mo.us.