April 12 – “Little Treasures”

I have been on the verge of getting depressed about this joint pain for several weeks now.  I thought this new medication would begin to make some difference after I built up to taking four a day.  That hasn't happened.  I see no change whatsoever.  In fact I think it's worse than it's been since back when I was taking all that Advil.  At least that helped some.  I guess I'm naïve.  I thought prescriptions were supposed to be stronger than over the counter stuff.    Concentrating at the computer was out of the question this morning, so I went into the back yard to see if there was anything I could do to make a dent in our pile of Ike salvage junk.  I found just the thing.  Didn't require much lifting.  All I had to do was put some water in a tub and add some Clorox.  There were still several boxes of toys that had been under one of the beds, I think.  They were still pretty nasty.  It was kind of fun, though, to try to figure out what some of the stuff actually was.  I found He-Man and several Masters of the Universe.  Two of them even had all their limbs still attached.  There were a few of those GI Joe's and Ken dolls that are about a foot long.  Sadly, only one had his arms and legs hooked on.  There were a lot of those little plastic action figures: a set of army men fighting World War II  (I know it was WWII because there was also a whole set of Japanese soldiers, one even carrying the Japanese flag), two sets of Civil War guys (Most of them were Confederates, but a lot of them had arms and legs and even heads broken off.  One guy even had a tiny string noose tied around his neck, the creative work of one of our sons.  A Robert E. Lee figure was the standout of this crowd.), a set of cowboys and Indians (There was a female Indian carrying some fish.  I think she was supposed to be an Eskimo, though.  There were several teeny little Indians riding tiny little horses.  Not too many cowboys, though.  I guess they were all at Little Big Horn.), a lot of different animals of all sizes (penguins, anteater, wooly mammoth, zebra, and a huge saber toothed tiger with a custom-built saddle.  I'm sure that went with some cartoon show, but I can't remember.).  I ran across a small trash can we used to use  in the house.  It was full of fast food give-away creatures: Darkwing Duck, Judy Jetson, and Minnie Mouse, among others.    I spent the day washing and drying the figures and bagging them up in baggies so we can store them so future generations of Vaughans can discover strange and wonderful treasures in the attic over at Nani and DadDad's house.  Unless, of course, we have another hurricane and lose them all again.  One salvage job to a toy.  That's all.   Ephesians 3:20-21 says, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen."   Father, that's what I want our future Vaughan generations to discover – your glory.  Amen.