A Boy and his Box

Hello, dear friend...

Today I write to say that cardboard boxes are tremendous toys.

Good family friends of ours from Massachusetts, generously sent our children Christmas gifts this past week. What a thrill to have gifts to open on an ordinary Tuesday in mid-January! They sent Christopher his first Tonka truck, which he immediately found interest in. When 5 minutes was up, he cast his concentration toward the rather spacious cardboard box it came in. Here is the rest from his perpective: It was large enough to be a studio apartment, I figured, a great place to escape when family pressures become just to much to bear-or I need to hide from The All-Seeing One (mama) after yet another successful nunny-snatching escapade that leaves my little sister in a tizzy. The corner of the room has not turned out to be a safe haven after all. Just because my face is to the corner and I can't see her, doesn't mean she cannot see me.

Christopher's reflection continues....

Even though she is sometimes best described as "The Great Fun-Spoiler", she can also be alot of fun. Like when she helped me make my fort, and even hung a sign on the side that says "No Girls Allowed". And so now I have my own digs and I'm diggin' it. -Christopher

So maybe my 1 year old is not sitting here typing, but because I am his mother, I know what he's thinking. For now. He is like me in many, many ways (poor thing!), and one way is that his emotions are written all over his face. It's so easy to read his mind.

Snow is softly meandering down from the gray sky as I sit here. Peace in the form of white rain. Lovely...

Here is a quote I copied down this morning and hung on our bathroom mirror:

I hope we’re all learning to live a community that transcends whatever task we’re on or not on together. The connection of this family is not the meetings we attend, but the relationships we forge as God connects us to others. We all don’t need to pursue only people who are like-minded, but with all kinds of folks, believers and unbelievers as God leads us.

The simple question I ask regularly is, “Father who do you want me walking alongside at this season of my life.” And then I follow through on that. I realize most people find it difficult to initiate contact, but I consider that part of my life following him!

-Wayne Jacobsen

Happy Thursday to you....