March 7 – “Imaginary friends, pretending, and just kidding around”

 

 

Today I search for my church keys.  Yesterday I guess Cailyn found the perfect place to store them so they wouldn't get lost.  Only she can't remember where that spot is now.  We searched the whole house top to bottom and haven't found them yet. 

 

I can't keep up.  Cailyn introduced me to a new imaginary friend the other day.  We were sitting on the floor in the kitchen for some reason.  Could have been anything from taking a break after an outside walk to hiding out from the myriads of monsters that apparently frequent our abode.  I don't remember.  But suddenly she sat up straight with a look of surprise in her eyes and pointed over my shoulder toward the refrigerator.  As I began my turn to follow her gaze she remarked, "There is Terry.  Terry is over there."  I completed my turn, and as expected, I saw nothing.  I asked where this Terry was, so she pointed again with a grin, "Right over there, DadDad.  It's Terry."  I looked again, harder this time.  Still not seeing anything, I queried, "Oh, do you mean the one hiding behind the doors inside the 'frigerator?"  "That's it, DadDad.  That's Terry."  Ah.  I had forgotten to use my x-ray vision.  How negligent of me.  I did want some more information, though, so I asked if Terry was a boy or a girl.  I mean, after all, she had played with Boy for a while.  Not such a good question in this instance, however.  She got that "I'll answer you but you should know the answer already" look on her face.  She did reveal that Terry was in fact a girl.  I think Terry was happy to stay indoors.  In refrigerator doors.  We never saw her again.

 

Then Cailyn got started on her use of the word "Pretend."  Any time she asked to do something that wasn't quite appropriate for the situation, and she was told she couldn't do it right then, she responded with something along the lines of, "OK.  Then I will just pretend to do it."  And pretend she did, miming all the appropriate movements.  She pretended to play with Nani's breakable "pretties."  She pretended to jump on the bed.  She pretended to jump off the counter.  All that pretending sure made me tired.

 

She followed that up with an array of uses for the phrase, "I just kidding."  You can imagine where that went.  "I gonna eat some candy right now," she offered.  My rebuttal: "Not right now Cailyn.  You can have some after dinner."  Reply: "I just kidding."  The she tried: "I gonna jump on the bed right now."  That only required a look of disapproval before she hastened to add, "I just kidding." It wouldn't have been nearly as stressful, but she actually geared up like she was on the verge of carrying out the activity before she announced her intentions.  She certainly knows how to sell it to her dear old DadDad.

 

Hebrews 3:3-6 says, "Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself.  For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.  Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future.  But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

 

Father, it would really be an inconvenience to have to get new keys made.  I'm happy to make that happen, but finding those others would be great, too.  Amen.

March 6 – “Interloper”

 

 

I mowed the grass the other day.  Not such a big deal, but it led directly to a pretty funny incident that I sure wish I could have been there to see.  After I finished mowing the front and back yards, I got the edger out of the garage and trimmed up the sidewalks and around the trees.  I got pretty tired, though, so I never got around to finishing the back yard.  I pushed the mower into the garage, plopped the Weedeater into its place, shut the door and went on in to take a shower.  All sounds pretty run-of-the-mill, doesn't it?  The fun didn't start until the next day. 

 

The next afternoon Chris went from the house into the garage looking for a box for some reason or another.  Of course whenever anyone goes in there, Fritz, our mixed breed Boston Terrier-Spitz combination, is an ever-present companion.  The two flipped on the light and stepped into the open space.  And almost immediately Chris felt something rub against her leg.  Now Chris has a carefully thought out plan for reacting when something like that happens.  She stifled a scream and jumped backwards as fast as she could get her legs to react.  Fritz apparently has the same strategy.  As the two of them backpedaled toward the door, Chris hastily scanned the floor for evidence of an interloper.  And there it was.  The neighborhood black cat that comes over for visits all the time had sauntered in through the wide open door the day before while I was mowing.  Not knowing we had an extra occupant, I simply hit the close button and trapped it inside.  The creature had been in our garage all night and half of the next day.  Don't know what it might have had for breakfast.  Maybe it scoured the place for hidden mice.  Hope so.  At least then it would be making itself useful.

 

Since Chris had continued her backward momentum, she came into the office and let me know we had an intruder.  Doing my best not to allow myself to be overwhelmed with mirth, I assured her we would get it out.  Sure enough, as the door opened, a dark streak raced past us and disappeared under the car.  As for our fearless watchdog, I think he is still recovering from the horrifying trauma.

 

Hebrews 3:1 says, "Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess."

 

Father, once again I thank you for lighthearted moments in the midst of dark times.  Please keep Chris' focus on you as she deals with the stresses of post-funeral family absurdity.  Amen.

March 5 – “Aww moments”

 

 

Here's a few random adventures I've been saving up to tell.  A while back we had been to Sonic with Cailyn.  She of course had their version of a Happy Meal, whatever they call it there.  The toy inside was some kind of cardboard box shaped like a three dimensional triangle.  And inside the box were some pieces of heavy paper scored to punch out what turned out to be three little cubes.  It was a game of sorts, but Cailyn didn't have the patience to sit through a reading of the instructions.  She just wanted to know what the "little boxes" were and what we were supposed to put inside them.  It took some doing, but I finally explained the whole concept of dice and how they are used.  You know, the socio-historical application of small objects used in divination rituals among ancient and not-so-ancient cultures.  Oh, wait.  That was the teaching Sunday morning.  I had to simplify it a bit for Cailyn.  For her it became little boxes that you roll on the floor and see which pictures are showing on top.  That was enough for any three-year-old.  For the rest of that day her cry became, "I wanna roll the ice." 

 

When Josh and Christi came for the funeral this weekend Caleb found the toy robot we rescued from a church garage sale donation my brother Stan gave us for Seaside.  It's one of those two feet tall mechanical monstrosities that respond to the commands of a remote control device.  Hid Dad and big brother were operating it and Caleb decided it was real enough to play with.  So he first ran from it, sing-songing the phrase of defiance that somehow makes its way through every generation of children, "Nani, nani, booboo, can't catch me."  Needless to say the robot never could quite catch up with him.  So he changed his tactics.  As Zak pushed the buttons Caleb joined in dancing the robot dance, twirling jerkily in circle after circle.  Now that was one I wish we had caught on camera.  

 

And one final anecdote for the day also involves Cailyn.  Chris has been really good at coming up with creative ways to teach our little guys, no matter how young they are.  The other day she and Cailyn were sitting at the table with paper and crayons and scissors.  Chris set up a dot to dot sequence on a piece of paper for Cailyn to follow.  When she finished connecting them all, Chris showed her that she had actually written her own name.  That was a cute moment.  And certainly one to be commemorated in Cailyn's eyes.  She announced that she wanted to cut it out and show it to her Mommy.  Not a problem.  She began the tedious process of snipping and clipping, one tiny piece of paper at a time.  In the process, several stray pieces fell to the floor, so Chris bent over to pick them up.  When she straightened back up she was momentarily paralyzed.  There sat Cailyn with scissors in one hand.  With her other she was stroking her hair, looking for just the right length for her new hairdo.  Thankfully the paralysis was only temporary.  Chris screamed out, "No, not your hair."  It got Cailyn's attention before she could make the final, fatal snip.  But the suddenness of the scream had another effect as well.  It startled Cailyn and scared her.  After about a three count, she started to cry, and ran from the table … into the arms of her DadDad.  Cue the soft, tender music and the audience sighing as one, "Awww."

 

Hebrews 2:18 says, "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."

 

Father, thank you for honoring us with those little "Aww" moments.  They tend to make the "Oh, no" moments fade away.  Amen.

March 4 – “Uneventful”

 

 

That whole wake thing – in fact everything about how we deal with death - is one fascinating point to ponder in the sociological realm.  On one side of the funeral home are the folks who are pretty much having a party, laughing and remembering fondly.  On the other side are those who are sitting somberly, aching for the whole ordeal to end.  At the wake for Chris' Dad we had a visitor.  Well, we had a few people come who actually knew the family, but this lady was really a visitor.  She told us she was 92 years old.  She must have seen us all struggling to figure out who she was related to, because she finally admitted that she had just been to the rosary service in the other room to see what that would be like.  She saw that there were some other people here, so she came over to see what was going on.  She said some very encouraging words about how in her experience most of the time the people who have died were better off now without pain and suffering.  She was by far the sweetest funeral crasher I have ever met.

 

Our friend Jennifer came over to hang out with Mom while we all attended the funeral service yesterday.  That was a huge load off our minds.  Mom has been kind of tanking again lately, so there is no way she could have made it through the day that we had.  We did get some coconut oil to start trying with her.  A high school friend recommended it based on some new Alzheimer's research.  Something about the brain being able to absorb the good stuff in it.  Not FDA approved, but then what is?  I put some on my rice the other day.  No taste at all.  Guess that makes it easy to hide in foods.  I don't feel any smarter than usual, but that was just one dose, right?  We'll give it a try. 

 

On our way to the funeral Chris saw a rat dart across the road.  We thought about texting Christi with the great news and having her keep an eye out.  They just nabbed one in their house, and she is not that fond of the little critters.  As we drove on, I alternated between crossword puzzles and dozing.  Somewhere in the mass of nothingness we go through between here and Bay City I heard Chris utter, "Oh, no."  It wasn't fearful or intense.  Just "Oh, no."  It was enough to get my attention, though, so I asked what she saw.  I was hoping for something else exotic to go along with the earlier rat.  I was disappointed.  It was a dead cow on the side of the road.  I did ask if it was the same one that escaped the night before, but she said no. 

 

My prayer for the day of the funeral was that it would be uneventful.  Other than the rat and the dead cow, that prayer was answered.  Not that it wasn't tense.  The family dynamics are such that it was draining, primarily because no one really knew anyone else.  But the service went fine.  I did get Cailyn in trouble, though.  I asked Chris if she had a pen so I could take notes on the sermon.  I don't do too many funerals, so I hoped to get some ideas, which I did, by the way.  The old retired preacher who did the ceremony had probably done a lot more of those than I have.  The pen Chris handed me was a unique one.  I pushed the end to get the point out, but to my amazement, that end was a hidden penlight instead.  Now that's a toy to have at a funeral.  I started playing with the little point of light, flashing it onto the back of the pew in front of me.  This went on for a few minutes before I realized Cailyn was watching me.  She was sitting with her Mom and Dad right behind us.  She was being quiet, so I continued, just moving over a bit to give her a better view.  That was all the encouragement she needed.  All of a sudden she wanted to climb over the pew and sit with me.  That would have been fine with me, but her Mom didn't know what was going on.  She thought Cailyn was bothering us, so she pulled her back and gently fussed at her.  Oh, she wasn't the only one who got scolded, though.  Chris kind of elbowed me and told me with one of "those looks" to quit playing around.  Oops.  Busted.  I make a terrible parishioner.  I'm glad I'm the preacher at my church.  That way I can do silly things and incorporate them as part of the sermon.  At least I don't put myself to sleep.

 

Psalms 102:25-27 says, "In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment.  Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.  But you remain the same, and your years will never end."

 

Father, thank you for answering my prayer for uneventful.  Amen.

March 3 – “Excitement in Cedar Lane”

 

 

About the blog from the other day with all the deep thoughts and theological implications and practical applications.  The second half of that story is … the hardest thing about getting a great insight from God is remembering that everybody else didn't get it too.  Wouldn't it be so much easier if everybody was on the same schedule for downloading points of acute perception?  Of course if that were the case most of us pastors would be out of at least half of our job. 

 

Josh and Christi and their boys got here yesterday just in time for Josh to crawl back in the car and head for Bay City with us.  It was the visitation night for the family to greet well-wishers before the funeral today.  We had a great trip.  Josh was given orders by Christi before we left to take a nap.  Maybe he dozed for a minute or two, but he sat in the front seat with Chris and the two of them talked most of the way.  I was hard at work on a new Visual Verse for Sunday, but I guess I did throw in my two cents worth every now and then. 

 

At one point the talk had quieted and we were tooling along through the fields along the back roads.  It was good to be moving at the speed limit.  We decided to take the beach road.  It's not only much more scenic, but we figured it would be quicker.  Not so much.  They were working on a place that had washed out, so in two places the road narrowed to one lane.  That's one lane.  Not one in each direction.  Just one for the whole road.  The kind where you have to wait for the guy with the sign on a pole to turn it around from stop to slow.  Not so good for making good time.  Back to calm, quiet back roads.  Suddenly, Chris slammed on the brakes.  What could possibly be happening?  There were no cars anywhere.  From the sighs of relief in the front seat I knew we had just narrowly escaped a vicious collision.  Quickly, I looked up from my drawings and found myself face to face with … a renegade cow.  "Ah," I thought, "we must be near Bay City."  Yep.  Sure enough.  We were in the booming metropolis of Cedar Lane.  Community center.  Post office.  Church.  There must be some people around somewhere.  Great little town.  Years ago we were driving through there and noticed the post office was flying the flag upside down.  Signal of distress, right?  So we stopped and I went in and asked the clerk if everything was all right.  Scared her to death.  She had no idea about the flag.  She assured me all was well and that she would fix the flag.  Small town Texas. 

 

Hebrews 1:3-4 says, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.  So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs."

 

Father, thank you for protecting us from renegade cows and rampaging bitterness.  Amen.

March 2 – “Dying twice”

 

 

I finally got the grass mowed.  Actually I mowed Nathan and April's front yard first.  It seemed only right since I was borrowing the lawn mower from them.  We still haven't bitten the bullet and bought a new one.  I just wish I knew all the ins and outs of small engine repair.  There is probably something simple involved in fixing ours, but I have no idea where to even begin beyond changing a spark plug and cleaning out the little foam filter thing.  And the grass was really high.  Lots of weeds and clover made it extremely thick.  In fact I ran out of gas before I finished.  That doesn't usually happen.  I used our broken weedeater to edge the front yard.  It doesn't have one of those guards around it, so you have to be very careful not to get slapped in the leg by the cord as it spins around.  Really hurts.  Not that I have ever been zinged myself, of course.  I forgot to even take it into the back yard.  Guess I was so focused on sweeping the front sidewalks this time that it slipped my mind.  Last time I mowed I forgot to sweep afterwards.  Grass stuck around for weeks. 

 

I made it to Jahcin's baseball practice for an hour or so right before home group.  Kel asked me to help him coach, and this was the first time they had access to the pitching machine for batting practice.  I discovered that Hitchcock's Little League fields are right next to a huge retention pond.  That equals mosquito swarms.  Needless to say I had no spray with me.  Neither did any of the kids.  I guess they are used to it or something.  Not me.  I'll remember next time we practice there.  We have several kids on the team who have never played before.  Not machine-pitch.   Not t-ball.  Not anything.  They don't know how to throw.  Or bat.  Or catch.  Pretty basic stuff there.  Lots of fun to work with because they don't have any bad habits yet.  Problem is, there are also a few kids on the team who look like they have been playing for years.  And they are big.  We made one minor adjustment to one guy's swing and he was smashing balls into the outfield.  Gotta be careful when he's up or someone will get hurt.

 

It was kind of weird how our Bible study at home group last night was on death, when we are headed to a funeral tomorrow.  Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  And the discussion was more spirited than it has been in a while.  I thought people didn't like to talk about death.  Guess we've come a long way.  Or maybe we have an unusual group.  I know that's true.  Here's the question of the night: If Jesus knew he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, why did he weep?  Why wasn't he fighting to keep the smirk off his face like a little kid does when he knows a surprise is about to be revealed?  We came up with some good answers.  He really loved Lazarus (that's what the people in the story said).  He really loved Mary and Martha and was sad to see them in such grief.  He was sad that the people had such little faith.  Or my personal favorite, he hated to bring Lazarus back from the eternal life he was experiencing, knowing that he would just have to go through death all over again.  Dying twice.  Ouch. 

 

Hebrews 9:27-28 says, "Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."

 

Father, thank you for that "die once" thing.  Once is enough.  Amen.

March 1 – “You get to choose”

 

 

The funeral for Chris' Dad is this Saturday in Bay City.  Family visitation time is Friday night.  I had one of those weird, fumbling, ah-ha moments yesterday while I was working on the teaching for church Sunday.  I got to thinking about Chris and her family and all the relationship drama involved there.  That morphed into thoughts about the relationship drama of some kind or another that probably exists in pretty much every family at some level or another.  Which extended into the idea that the whole drama thing of wondering what others think and worrying about offending someone and struggling with how to say what to whom and when was way too exhausting. It just didn't seem worth all the effort people put into it day after day, year after year.

 

It's amazing how little your circumstances matter when you consider every single person in every single country around the world.  There is always someone who is better off than you.  There is always someone who is worse off than you.  That circumstance that you are sure will be the end of the world as you know it is not even a blip on the radar of the person you passed in the bread aisle at Randalls.  And the fact is, you worrying about something never really helps solve the problem anyway.  It just creates a lot of stress that bubbles over into physical illness or psychological depression or relational disaster.

 

Remember that there is going to be an end to whatever your ongoing waking nightmare is.  People are going to wake up tomorrow.  Lives are going to go on.  Babies will be born.  Some people will be hungry.  Some will be gluttons.  Some people will do everything they can to encourage those around them.  Some will be complete jerks.  So how much better would it be to live your life free from the gut-wrenching anticipation of the next problem that's bound to come up?  Amazingly, you get to choose.  You don't have to be sucked into the games people play or the circumstances that seem to engulf you.  Choose to live above all that.  You won't be alone. 

 

Matthew 6:33-34 says, "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

 

Father, give Chris the clarity of mind to live the next three days with a clear view of your kingdom and your righteousness.  Amen.