Baby Yes

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Not all little girls like to play with dolls. Some prefer coloring books and markers. Others like riding toys, building blocks, or just doing whatever mommy’s doing.

Back when granddaughter Emerald lived in Michigan, I got to babysit her a good deal, and from early-on she was a coloring person. But there was one brief period when she bonded with a doll – a soft one about 8” tall.

It mattered that this baby was decked out in Emerald’s favorite color, and even her skin was pink. During those days when the two of them were friends, Emerald was 3 years old, and I wondered if she had named her dolly.

“Does your baby have a name?” I said.

Emerald didn’t have to think. “Baby Yes.”

“Her name is Baby Yes?”

“U-huh.”

The explanation was that her doll always said yes. I found that charming, and a fascinating discussion followed.

Our conclusion was that Baby Yes had the right idea. It was good to be positive about life and to embrace opportunities with yeses. It was especially important to say yes to God and the things he wanted us to do. Emerald said she was up for that.

While my grands were here this summer, Baby Yes got lots of attention from granddaughter Lizzie, who also happens to be a very sweet yes-person – and who is definitely a dolly girl.

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At the end of the summer, all 12 children had headed home, and I began reorganizing the well-used toy bins. When I opened the doll container, I found a jumble of undressed, sticky babies with marker-make-up. Dumping them all on the basement floor, I decided to have some grandma-fun.

While their tiny clothes swished in the wash machine, I cleaned up their faces and hands, feeling like I was playing dolls again. Each of these babies has history with our family and bears the name given them by our 3 daughters when they were little.

There’s Jennifer, Baby LaLa, Connie, Allison, Megan, and others. And of course there’s Baby Yes.

As I lined them up for a photo to send to my granddaughters, little Baby Yes stood out from the crowd – all because of the name Emerald had given her. Looking at her, I decided I want to be a yes-person, too, especially when God is the One asking the questions.

Jesus asked, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied. (Matthew 9:28)

When Dark Is Light

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Each part of a church service has a special significance, but the children’s sermon is one of my favorites.

On a recent Sunday, our pastor was doing a good job describing Jesus as the Light of the world when one of the children, age four, raised his hand. Having just heard all about the Light, he felt it was important to add something. “My favorite color is dark.”

Most pastors are good at handling this kind of spontaneity, especially when it comes from a child. After acknowledging the comment, Pastor Jay smoothly moved his words from darkness back to light.

That afternoon at home I was still chuckling over the morning’s comment when I remembered our first grandchild, Skylar, who would have appreciated that unprompted addition to the children’s sermon.

When she was only three (left), her Auntie Weezi asked her a question most kids love to answer. “Sky, what’s your favorite color?”

Skylar answered without even looking up. “Black.”

Most little girls are into pink and purple, but each child is allowed to have their own favorite. Skylar’s unusual choice gave us all a good giggle that day.

My next-door-neighbor, Linda, told me that when she was a child walking home in the dark, she was never afraid. Instead she looked into the inky blackness around her and thought about the interesting things that might be hidden in the darkness – good things. She probably would have nodded in agreement to the favorites of dark and black.

Some of my widowed friends (including me) have experienced the opposite perspective on darkness. After becoming widows, we might find our imaginations allowing fear to creep in, uninvited. This is when we need to turn to God to get his opinion. He created darkness as well as light and surely isn’t biased against either one.

His explanation to me has been that the black of night is not the problem. Rather it’s the fear. And fear is never, he says, from him. It’s a tool of the devil who uses it to knock us off balance emotionally. God tells us there’s no darkness in him at all (1 John 1:5) and that he’s not afraid of it. As a matter of fact, darkness looks light to him (Psalm 139:12). The only darkness that should concern us is spiritual darkness – not knowing the truth of salvation.

As for fearing the black of night, it might help to spend more time hanging around those youngsters who love both black and dark.

“For you are my lamp, O Lord, and the Lord will lighten my darkness.” (2 Samuel 22:29)

The Reveal

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It was last Memorial Day when we had our first inkling that a new baby was coming. Linnea had flown from Florida to Michigan to attend her sister Birgitta’s wedding open house. And as we ran errands together, she surprised us with her lovely secret – that another baby would be joining us in January.

Fast-forward to summer when the 26 members of our family were together in Michigan. Linnea’s pregnancy had passed its half way mark, and she and Adam had learned the baby’s gender. Much to our happiness, they wanted to share it with us all. 

We planned a Reveal Party after dinner with a special dessert: a cake with either pink or blue frosting in the middle. Only the two parents knew what was inside.

Throughout the day the 12 grandchildren, ages 10 and under, eagerly anticipated the announcement. Boy or girl? Which team?

As the hours went by, the children shared their hopes with each other… boys rooting for blue frosting, girls for pink. And when the moment came, Linnea cut a plump piece of cake and lifted it to reveal — it was pink!

The girls broke into squeals of delight, the boys stood silent, and the adults got a good chuckle over both responses. But pretty quickly the 12 kids shifted from gender-focus to cake-focus. The rest of us, though, were thankful for a glimpse of what God was doing within Linnea, excited to know a little something about who he was creating.

It was God’s idea to establish 9 months as the time it would take for him to make a baby. Of course he could do this intricate work in an instant, but he chooses to take his time. Maybe it’s similar to the way he formed the first human from clay. I wonder how long he took on that project. My guess is…. 9 months.

These days God still takes his time forming babies inside their mothers. I like to think he enjoys the long, complicated process during that time when only he holds the secrets to who he’s working on.

Fast forward to January and the birth of our May Evangeline. At the time of the Reveal Party, we were thrilled to learn one fact about her: that she would be a girl. Now the whole of her has been revealed, and we know all kinds of things–-her name, the circumstances of her birth, what she looks like, and that she’s easy-going. But just think about how much God knows about her.

He sees her life stretched out from beginning to end and knows every emotion she’ll experience, what she’ll look like as an adult, who her friends will be, what interests she’ll have, whether or not she’ll marry or become a mother, and everything else about her.

But though God sees it all, his Reveal Parties of new information will happen  only one day at a time. He has revealed one long-term fact about little May, though — that he hopes she’ll always trust him to take care of the life he’s given her.  

“It was You who created my inward parts. I was made in secret.” (Psalm 139:13,15)