Monday, November 11, 2013

November 11 – “On sea creatures, kiaradadens, and rocks”

I forgot to mention Micah’s Christmas list he gave me when they were here.  I’m not sure where these desires came from, but he was very specific.  First he wanted a dolphin.  Yep.  A real dolphin.  I asked three times to make sure.  Next on his list was a sea lion.  Maybe he is studying sea life as part of his school.  The third one came a little closer to home.  It was a swimming pool.  Still water related, and still a bit … unexpected.  Then his final wish was a combined one.  He wanted a glass bowl with water in it and some fish food for the glow-in-the-dark fish he was hoping to get.  That’s all.  Just four items total.  How hard can it be, Mom and Dad?  Might take a while for those wishes to come true.

After the boys left on Saturday, Cailyn called to ask if she could spend the night with us.  Why not?  She does like to come over especially on Saturday nights, because she gets to go to church on Sunday.  This time when she arrived I quickly realized that she was here to have a sleepover with Nani.  They played games at the table and on the floor, while Mom and I pretty much watched the football game.  At one point they disappeared for a while, and reappeared to reveal that they were doing a fashion show, and I was the judge or customer or whoever it is that watches fashion shows.  The two of them came in and did some impressive poses.  Cailyn would go first, then insist that Nani do exactly as she had done.  Wish I had that on camera.  She posed on one foot, with both hands out, with her head cocked to the side, with hands on hips.  And occasionally she used her hands to spotlight the jewelry Chris was letting her wear.  Chris made the comment that she hadn’t been in on the beauty pageant circuit since college.  (Yep.  When we were in college she was in the school’s beauty pageant.  Gorgeous then.  Gorgeous now).  All around an impressive performance by both of them.  At one p oint Cailyn asked me for help buttoning up her “kiaradaden.”  Apparently it was actually something called a cardigan, so she was pretty close.  I thought it was a sweater, but what do I know about fashion.

On Sunday morning I was going over my notes for the teaching and the children’s sermon.   Cailyn was in my lap, because she didn’t want to take the chance of me leaving without her.  After asking a hundred or so questions about what I was doing, she reached into her drawer and began working feverishly on a project of her own.  I watched her for a while before asking, “What are you working on?”  She replied, “It’s a picture for the children’s sermon.”  It was a large black object, but she continued, “I’m making a rock picture and I didn’t have gray, so it’s going to be a black rock and you can use it for the children’s sermon.”  OK.  A black rock.  I couldn’t resist.  “So how can we use the rock to tell children about Jesus?  Is Jesus like a rock?”  I know, that’s a leading question, but I was trying to be helpful.  She had an answer right away, though.  “No, DadDad.  Jesus is not a rock.  He makes a rock.  And now I’m making a rock, so I’m Jesus.  I’m like Jesus.  Except I’m not really Jesus, because I’m not in your heart like he is.”  Now I have to admit I was kind of stunned by that one.  Was this a budding theologian here?  I simply nodded my approval and waited.  I could see the wheels were really turning in her brain.  She returned to her picture and added two other ones of different sizes.  Finally she took a deep breath and began her next treatise: “See, now I have a really big rock, and another one that we call ‘large,’ and another one that is just small.  Because Jesus made things all different sizes, and they’re all good because Jesus made them.”  Well, who am I to argue with that?  The kids’ sermon for the day was already set as a lead-in to the main teaching, but I sure didn’t throw away that picture.  And I’m pretty sure I can use it in the future just as it was written.  Maybe she can fill the pulpit for me next time I have to be out of town. 

Genesis 1:31 says, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day.”

Father, thank you for letting your creatures have a taste of your creativity.  Makes life down here a lot more interesting.  Amen.

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