Janice Crow

Reflections - Mar 09

I’ve always suspected I was hopelessly middle class. It was confirmed for me one day when my daughter, Jamie, then five or six, named her new doll Polyester. I guess it could have been worse. Her Cabbage Patch twins could have been Rayon and Dacron. Needless to say, we had a good laugh over it and 23 years later it still comes up at family dinners and we laugh again.

When she was about that same age, we were at my parents’ home and the kids were playing in the dining room. Mom and dad were vigilant about watching the nightly news and no one dreamed that a child would be listening to a news broadcast. The commentator was relating the gruesome details of a heinous murder and how the perpetrator had hidden various severed body parts in the freezer. Suddenly I heard from the other room, “Great! Up there with the fish sticks.” At first we were stunned. Then we lost it. I was reminded of that just the other day and couldn’t help but laugh out loud after all these years.

Children seem to have a knack for finding the moment when you most need a smile, a laugh, a daydream, and bring it to you wrapped in the cutest package…front teeth missing, dirty face, shoes on the wrong feet, and hair hanging in a thousand wavy strands.

I remember one time being at a very low point in my life walking through the supermarket with the kids when they were a bit older. That particular evening I was long on self-pity and short on cash and humor. Kids aren’t idiots. They can read you like a dime novel. We turned down the detergent aisle and they began to draw my attention to the names of the detergents. “Look mom, “Cheer” up. The “Tide” will turn. God can take care of it “All”. It’s God’s “Biz”ness. That’s what he “Duz”. Be “Bold”. You have everything to “Gain”. He’ll “Wisk” your problems away.” It wasn’t long until a smile broke through and things didn’t seem nearly so bleak. I was truly thankful for their company.

Those clever observations and sayings of a child are like a jar of strawberry jam that you keep tucked safely away on a shelf until you just have to have something sweet. Then you pop it open years later and it’s just as funny and sweet as it was the day it was spoken. Preserves for the Soul. Hmmmm. I wonder if anybody’s written that book yet.

It would be interesting to know if God ever looks back on the things His children have said. Does He sit around with the angels and say, “I remember the time little Samuel said, ‘Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.’ He was a good kid.” Does He recount to the angels the words of David to Goliath, “You come to me with a spear and a sword, but I come to you in the name of the Lord.” He was sure one gutsy shepherd boy and I was really proud of him that day. Does he ever retell the story we’re so familiar with? “Why, I remember when my son, Jesus, was only twelve years old how he baffled those bigshot lawyers in the temple. It was awesome. He said he had to be about his father’s business. No one ever had a son like him.”

What about my words? What have I said? Would my conversations with Him cross His mind years later and make Him smile? Would he be proud to tell my story again and again and quote me? I certainly hope so, for I do want to bring Him joy!

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in they sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.” Psalms 19:14

Janice