April 2 – “Eleven feet long”

Cailyn and I were scrolling through FaceBook the other day, looking for appropriate videos we could watch.  She loves watching videos.  In fact just this morning I did everything I could think of to wake her up, from rubbing her back to playing songs from my phone.  Not that my repertoire of songs is that great on my phone, but I do have that classic masterpiece from the Cedarmont Kids, Action Bible Songs.  I knew I was in trouble, though when she didn’t even budge during Father Abraham.  And that was with me using her body parts to do the motions.  That kid can sleep.  So I decided to switch to videos.  Sure enough, the second one in did the trick.  Zakary singing in his church children’s musical.  Cousin Connection.  She had to check out her cousin.  Thank you for that, Zak.

So back to the video at hand.  It was one of those random ones that no one knows for sure who originally posted it, but thousands of people end up watching it just because it strikes a fancy.  In this one a guy was fishing in his kayak and hooked an eleven foot long shark.  It took him on a wild two mile ride.  I asked Cailyn what she thought of that one.  Her only question?  How tall is eleven feet?  And that became my next grandparent challenge: how do you communicate “eleven feet”?  I thought about getting out a tape measure, but I knew if I did that she would quickly lose interest.  I sure would.  She, like me, needed some kind of visual.  So what could I show her, or at least describe in colorful terms, that would portray eleven feet.  I started with the ceiling.  “Higher than the ceiling.”  But that was not precise enough.  She wanted to know “How much higher?”  So how do you get that exact and still remain artistic enough to hold the interest of a five-year-old?  A basketball hoop in ten feet off the ground.  If she as into basketball that might work.  But I haven’t seen her transfixed to a TV screen during a March Madness game yet.  I heard they caught an eleven-foot long giant squid in Japan.  Nah.  This was taking way too long, so I decided to improvise.  “Eleven feet tall would be as tall as you standing up on my shoulders.  That’s pretty high up there, isn’t it?”  She pondered that image for a long few seconds before formulating this masterful retort: “Well if my momma weared her high heels she would be taller than that shark.”  That’s some high heels, April.  You win.

Isaiah 40:28 says, “Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.”

Father, thank you for amazing creatures … like eleven-feet-long sharks and children.  Amen.