March 16 – “Memorials”

I couldn’t see that comet that was supposed to be in the sky the other night.  We tried several times, and even went up on the deck in the cold, 50 degree wind.  Still no comet.  Guess it was a case of too much light in the big city.  Sigh.

I led a memorial service the other day.  The son of the dear lady who died handed me a thank you note after the service, a pretty common occurrence.  But what was inside wasn’t quite so common.  There were no words of any kind written or printed on the card other than the factory embossed “Thank You” on the front and the Hallmark stamp on the back.  But inside two one hundred dollar bills had been folded in that origami kind of trick folding.  They were shaped into the form of two perfect hearts and stuck onto the page with a tiny dab of glue (so they wouldn’t be harmed in the removal, I suppose).  Thing is, I don’t want to remove them.  I texted a picture of them to Josh, and he said to unfold them would be like destroying a work of art.  I agree.  Maybe I won’t need them any time soon. 

Kel and Christina and the boys stopped by yesterday after a trip to the library.  I ordered some pizzas and they joined us for lunch.  I have always been fascinated with the way Moms can understand what their kids are saying.  Sometimes siblings have that knack as well.  It appears to be much rarer for Dads, and especially Grandads, though.  I certainly don’t have it.  Josiah has quite a vocabulary and I can sometimes make sense of what he says.  I needed an interpreter for most of it yesterday, though, when Christina was encouraging him to tell us about his recent experiences.  What better way to develop speaking skills than by lots of practice, right?  Way to go Mommy Christina.  At one point the two of them told a story about what they had seen on a trip to the YMCA.  Seems some cows were playing basketball.  That much I got.  Christina clarified that it was, indeed, cows.  The Chick-Fil-A cows were there to visit with the kids.  It was the next thing Josiah said that confused me, though.  Best I can tell he said, “Then those cows ranned outside and ran in the street and we runned ober dem.”  Christina was just as surprised as we were over that particular development to the story.  He was pretty much done by that time and his mind moved onto brighter thoughts.  I would have liked to mine his thought a bit more after that one, since we had the Mommy/Interpreter and all.  Ah, well.  Perhaps I should prepare a memorial service for those Chick-Fil-A cows.  We could serve steak …

Psalms 71:16 says, “I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign Lord;

I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.”

Father, bring on some of those mighty acts.  Amen.