June 1 – “Little kid laughter”

Church work day on a Monday.  That's how we started out this fine morning.  Actually we stopped by the house to pick up sickles and a wheelbarrow first.  While we were there our contractor showed up to make sure the floors were ready for the floor guys to start sanding the wood floors.  Chris took the opportunity to make sure he knew she wasn't happy with what the electricians did to the wall.  He thought they had already come back to fix it, so someone is probably getting a phone call.    We got to the church about thirty minutes later than I expected.  The visitor family from Oklahoma was already there.  At least three of them were.  And they had already started ripping up weeds by hand.  They had a huge pile going.  Before long several others in their crew came out to help attack the weeds and shovel away at the piles of dirt.  Chris and the Father of the Family did a lot of shoveling.  She worked to fill in the traffic lane under the school building.  He was determined to fill in a low spot near the steps to the school building.  The rest of us were stomping around on the mounds of dirt, pulling at ornery weeds or hacking away at the worst of them.  We ended up with four or five piles ready to be hauled off.  I think the city will see that we have begun the process and we'll get a tractor out there sometime soon to finish the job.    Chris and I went to Taco Cabana for lunch, and Nathan and April and Cailyn showed up and joined us.  Actually they called wanting to see the house, so we said they'd have to wait until after we ate.  They did come on over to the house and we all ended up sitting or, in my case, napping on the cool tile of the family room floor.  The floor guys were hard at work, and when they left the floors looked like oak again.  They had some kind of putty stuff all over them, though.  I guess that means they'll sand again tomorrow.  The guy did say that they would stain tomorrow.  That I can't wait to see.    We salvaged two huge appliance boxes for Jachin and Micah, so we made a trip by their house on the way home.  Of course we ended up staying for a long time.  The boys had to have a little wrestling match with DadDad.  I'm not sure who won, but I'll definitely be sore tomorrow.  On the way home we talked about how delightful it was to hear the unfettered laughter of those two.  I might also add to that the huge grins we got from Cailyn.  Kids are awesome.   Matthew 18:2-4 says, "He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.'"   Father, I want to be like a little kid.  Please gift me with some of that laughter.  Amen.