Thursday, November 10, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Life with a transformer
I am the vine, you are the branches, says the Lord. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit.
Jasper and I walked to the recycling bin and garbage dumpster yesterday. A little rain left little puddles, and Jasper walked through all of them. We carried the bag together, until the handle broke. Once we got there, he put the cans and papers in, one by one. Talking to himself the whole time.
On the way to the office, our second stop, he balanced himself with both arms out and walked along the red curbs. One car passed us, and we stepped off to the side. Our apartment complex is so quiet. 166 apartments just isn’t that many, I guess.
In the office Jasper found a strawberry Rice Krispie treat, which he decided to save till afternoon. I drank coffee and talked to Susan the manager about the Thanksgiving food drive, getting a new refrigerator or stove (might take awhile), and met her new assistant Vanessa. Vanessa invited Jasper to put rainbow and unicorn stickers on the side of her desk. She has two daughters. She and Jasper kind of hit it off, I think.
We were in such a Not Hurry yesterday, all day. It was wonderful.
Back at home Jasper played with our farm barn and silo and animals, while Margaret showed him a cool video of Illinois dairy farmers working their magic with their 85 cows: “When a cow decides she wants to be milked, she enters. The system checks if enough time has passed since her last milking. Cows are milked two to five times daily.” Not the dairy farming I remember!
Snack time? Breakfast for me. Strawberry waffles with maple syrup and blueberries and raspberries. Sausage fried with apples. Apple and orange and grapefruit juice all mixed up, another of Jasper’s famous cocktails.
We found a small cardboard box at home that missed the recycling, and Jasper decided to take it apart. He is learning the art of cutting with scissors, and when he finished we cut two holes in one side for his eyes, and made a helmet. He growled once his head was in the box. He took it on and off, and sometimes the holes were in the back, or on the side. When they ended up in front, his eyes sparkled through them. He was laughing.
The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not. There will be those who say, “Look, there he is,” or “Look, here he is!” Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.
Then he cut a one inch square of cardboard and taped it to the helmet’s left side. “That’s a push button, and when I push it I get transformed,” he told us. “The helmet transforms and so do I.” He pushed the button. Big whooshing sounds came out of the helmet. He was jumping up and down. Was Jasper still in there? Was he transformed?
For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.
Jasper came back to himself long enough to eat lunch – bologna and corn on the cob, and take a long nap. But when he woke up he started growling again, and transforming again, and by the time his brother came from school, he was stronger and growlier than ever. He put on his helmet. He turned it so the holes were in front of his eyes. He was transforming! His mom was amazed. Miles was laughing.
Jasper was too.
(Philemon, Psalm 146, John 15, Luke 17)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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