Gettin’ Creative

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Taped TPToday I did something I bet no other grandma has ever done. I took 7 slightly used rolls of toilet paper, unrolled a couple of rounds, tore them off neatly, then Scotch taped along the seams.

Dementia? Art? Idiocy?

It harkens back to when Emerald was a one-year-old and we taught her to build tall towers out of fresh rolls of TP. They were soft, safe building blocks that tolerated the clumsy hands of a toddler perfectly.

Emerald loved the idea, and “tower” was one of her first distinguishable words. I figured it would be a brief phase in her development, but a year later (now a two-year-old), she’s still building. She’s capable of constructing towers taller than she is and understands that role-placement plays an important part in a high tower’s stability. And if there’s such a thing as being creative with toilet paper, Emerald is.

She lines them up on the edge of the bathtub, rolls them like wheels, and bunches them in symmetrical clusters. She erects walls with them and uses them as stools. I am one proud grandma.

Today while she was happily building TP-towers at my house, the bathroom suddenly became quiet, my signal to quickly check. When I rounded the corner I found a party-in-progress, complete with abundant confetti on the floor, in the tub, toilet, and stuck to the bath toys. Apparently one of the rolls had begun to unravel, and rather than Emerald’s usual, “Oh-oh, Mee Mee,” she decided to try a shredding project.

Shredded TPTiny bits of TP were in her hair, on her hands, and hanging from her clothes (breakfast pancake syrup helped with that). She was quite proud of herself and said, “TP, Mee Mee!” as I stood in the door, not knowing quite what to do.

Which brings me to the Scotch tape. Rather than disappoint Emerald by putting TP supplies on a high shelf or in another room altogether, I decided to try securing the rolls so she can continue to build without the temptation to shred.

We can learn a great deal from watching young children. Their spontaneous creativity is something God established inside every human being as if to remind us of him, the Creator. Though we can’t create as he can, we can “be creative” in a mini-likeness of him. And isn’t that what he wants us to be, a reflection of him? After all, the word “Christian” actually means “little Christ.”

Creative kiddo.Now that I’ve thought it through, I can appreciate Emerald’s creativity in a new way as she uses what God gave her. Of course my TP-taping may have been for naught if she arrives tomorrow with shredding on her mind.

All of us…. “can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Where is he?

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Every time Emerald and I walk downstairs at my house, we encounter a Scripture verse on the wall: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) Every time, we stop on step #5, point to each word in the verse, and together try to repeat them.

Our verseIt goes like this: I start by saying, “For we…” and Emerald chimes in with a loud, “WALK!” and I continue, “by faith, not by…” and she hollers, “SIGHT!” Then we share a laugh and continue down the steps.

But walking by faith rather than by sight is no laughing matter. It’s difficult even for a seasoned Christian – not difficult to understand, but exceedingly difficult to do.

Many of us struggle intensely with the not-seeing part, especially those of us who are visual learners. For us, seeing is believing. But God’s instruction is just the opposite: the believing must precede the seeing.

The other day while driving, I listened to an archived interview by a preacher named Vance Havner. He said, “When people say ‘God is nowhere,’ Christians should split that word in two and say, ‘God is now-here.’ ”

Vance HavnerHe went on to list the common complaints of people he had encountered, people who wondered why God didn’t show up when they fell on hard times or had relational problems or suffered from diseases. He explained how he used to say, “Yes, times are tough, but look Who’s here!”

His point was that our response to suffering shouldn’t be grounded in logic. A Christian’s willingness to live by faith has to be based on Who’s doing the talking rather than on what’s being said. For example, take Emerald’s and my stairwell verse. No one would choose a wait-and-see reality over seeing-it-now, but that’s what God wants us to do, for a good reason.

If we live a life of believing before seeing, our faith in him will benefit from a continual growth spurt. Living by faith rather than sight is the quickest way to gain faith-weight. He challenges us to set aside the logical laws of cause and effect that scream, “God’s not going to come through for you!” and develop instead a willingness to wait for a sight of him. When we finally gasp and say, “Oh! That was him putting those pieces together like that!” our faith gains new muscle.

It isn’t easy, but it’s oh so worth it. And though Emerald thinks our stairway recitation is just a happy game, one day I hope she’ll understand that rich rewards will come to her if she’ll just try to live by the 8 words on our stairwell wall.

“Faith is…. the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Mary: “I’m praising the Lord for a wonderful visit from my old prayer group this morning, and also for safe travel for family members returning from Arkansas today.”

Good Givers

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Generous people are a pleasure to know, and I know (and love) two sisters who are models of generosity. Priscilla and Nathalie were members of Moody Church long before I was, and as soon as they signed on, they began working in the Sunday school.

Both loved children and served faithfully in the two-year-old department for decades. That’s where our paths crossed 40 years ago as Nathalie (left) and Priscilla cheerfully received each of our toddlers when they left the nursery to attend “real” Sunday school. Whether our little ones walked into the class wearing smiles or frowns, these ladies always received them with love.

Priscilla Nathalie

Our children learned their first Scripture verses from Nathalie and Priscilla, along with how to share, how to wait their turn, and how to sit still for flannel-graph Bible stories. When Nate and I returned to pick them up after the adult service each week, these two women always had something positive to say about the morning.

Priscilla and Nathalie have always been generous, with their time, energy, ideas, and good cheer. But that’s not all. They’ve lived lives of monetary generosity, too.

Over the years they’ve loved going out for daily brisk walks, regardless of the weather. After they moved to a suburb near ours, I’d often see them “hoofing it” around town as I buzzed about in my mini-van. It puzzled me that sometimes they’d be walking along the edge of our residential roads rather than on the sidewalks, so one day I asked.

Nathalie said, “Over the years we’ve found pennies or other coins on our walks. In recent years we figured there were even more coins near the curbs, and once we even found a fifty dollar bill!”

$50

As I complimented them on their clever idea, Priscilla said, “Every November we put whatever we’ve found during that year into the Thanksgiving offering at church.”

And that’s where the generosity comes in. They could easily have kept what they found over the years, rationalizing that it “didn’t amount to much.” But Nathalie, a whiz with numbers, has kept track of what they’ve found, and pennies have morphed into dollars….

$1738.81 of them, to be exact.

In 2013 these energetic sisters finally had to call a halt to their neighborhood hiking. But my guess is that God has received their offerings, from pennies to bills, and transformed them into giant blessings in the lives of many. That’s because it was into his hands that they placed their findings.

And one day, when they get to glory, he’ll probably give them all the details.

“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Luke 12:34)

Praising and Praying with Mary

  1. I praise God for my wonderful family!
  2. Please pray I’ll have eyes that recognize God’s blessings in each day.

* Photos by Olin Mills