It’s Blippi Day!

Saturday, July 10, 2021                      (today’s lectionary)

It’s Blippi Day!

Be glad, you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad.

Andi came to visit Margaret about six last night, not long after Miles, Ian and Jasper’s front-yard lemonade stand earned them (and the homeless, who get half) $31 in thirty minutes. Andi needed to make a second batch of lemonade since it sold so well, and she brought what was left to Encompass, where the kids earned another $20.

I took a sip and couldn’t believe how good it was. Fresh lemons, just the right amount of sugar, even one seed to assure me of its very natural source … oh my goodness. Lemon-shakeup-stand-at-the-fair, here we come. Those folks ain’t got nuthin’ on this Miles-Ian-Jasper-Andi masterpiece. As I was leaving, another Encompass patient – a really big guy wearing Chicago Bulls shorts – sat in his wheelchair talking non-stop on his cellphone, looked up at me and punched the air with his phone. “That was really good lemonade! Thanks, man!”

Often so much better than the food Margaret has been eating. I, on the other hand, had a fried oyster plate with hushpuppies and a bowl of gumbo at Deckhand Oyster Bar yesterday for lunch. Before this week, I ate food out just twice since Margaret was hospitalized on June 4. Now it’s been two times in two days. I’ve been liberated!

Margaret has been eating more but losing water weight, so she weighs less than she has in a year or more. Lasix, sometimes in the form of an IV drip and sometimes a pill, keeps on draining her. In the morning someone (often me) installs thigh-high compression hose on her legs. When she’s in bed, a compressive pump tightens up first on one leg, then the other. Over weeks and weeks, all this intervention is reshaping her legs, back from logs to the beautiful sleek streamlined limbs that she has always been blessed with.

Today is Saturday. It really does feel like a weekend; Margaret will have less therapy and more quiet time, I’ll do some housecleaning, and the Tomitas are going to see Blippi: The Musical! This show, partially sponsored by the grocery chain HEB, sold out almost immediately. Online last night I saw just two tickets available, for $185 each.

Be glad you lowly ones; may your hearts be glad. Proclaim God’s wondrous deeds.

Do you know who Blippi is? He gets 200 million views per month on YouTube. He has 7.4 million followers. Miles and Jasper love to watch him on Saturdays, when they get a little bit of screen time. I wonder if they could sleep last night. This morning I imagine Miles jumping out of bed, eyes bright, flying down the stairs shouting, “It’s Blippi Day! It’s Blippi Day!”

Andi and Aki usually wait to share secrets like this until just the day before, to keep the craziness down a little. This time they almost forgot to tell the kids at all. I’m glad they remembered; those little guys need time to jump up and down in anticipation.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote a poem titled “I Am Waiting.” The poem’s refrain goes, “I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder.” Miles and Jasper have no need to wait. They are right in its birthing room every day of their still-young lives, where wonder abounds and there is more than enough to share. I love to join their happy throng.

The show’s description reads, “Blippi’s appeal lies in his wonder and in the way he looks at the world.” I think of Jesus, who wanted his listeners to share the joy and wonder they felt around him.

Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, no secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim it from the housetops.

Jesus insisted the people forego their fear and trembling and recognize their worth in the eyes of their Creator, their Father, their Abba, their Source.

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Not even a single sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s knowledge. Every hair of your head is counted. So do not be afraid: you are worth more than many sparrows.

Fall on my face in wonder. Behold the lamb of God.

(Genesis 49, Psalm 105, 1 Peter 4, Matthew 10)

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