The Game

Yesterday afternoon, the house was a mall and the porch was a boutique.  My granddaughter was over and wanted to pretend.

The boutique sold all kinds of things:  trays, furniture, earrings, bracelets, art work and cats.  Gracie was purchased by a buyer (me) and I was given the how-to of caring for this small cat who occupies the "mall".  Gracie doesn't like it when the door to the boutique is closed so she has learned to nudge it open and then push it with her paws.  And she doesn't like it part-way open; she likes it all the way open.

Gracie escaped into the "mall" area several times and the first couple of times Lauren dutifully went and brought her back.  Finally, at about the third escape she said, "Oh, well.  She'll find her way back."  Gracie had become a distraction to the real workings of the boutique which was interacting with the customer (me).  Several times she told me, "Well, now we have to get back to the game."

Lauren is seven; how does she know what a boutique is?  But she does and she is a really good salesperson!!

Yesterday Lauren brought home an art project.  It was a cut-out of a paper Jesus suspended on some string from a cup crayoned blue.  On the way home from school, she was trying to remember what the project signified and then she thought of it.  It was to represent Jesus going to heaven -- his ascension to go the Father.  So she pulled on the string and the cut-out of Jesus went skyward into heaven where you could not see him anymore.

After we arrived home, I tried it out too, and then I made Jesus come back down on the kitchen counter.  "Jesus thought of something else he wanted to say," I told her.  And I would quote something from the Bible, "Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me."  Or, "Love others as I have loved you."  Or "the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed."  Well, that was a big hit. 

"Make Jesus say something else," she asked.  So I did, but explained that Jesus really would not come back until the end of the world when there will be a new earth.  Lauren really loved the idea that all sorts of flowers and plants would grow and there would be no killing frosts or plant diseases.  Already she shows a great interest in plants and flowers.  And a great and abiding interest in Jesus.  She recounted a couple of His miracles, like curing the man who could not walk.

Going back to Lauren's housed, we counted flowering trees and flowers that are out right now like mounded phlox.  It was a really good day.

Oh, and we watered the new drift roses that I planted and gave some boxwoods a good drink.  They looked a little wilted.

The more time you spend with a grandchild, the more comfortable the relationship becomes.  The grandchild gets to know the real you, and you get to know the real grandchild.  The more time we spend with Jesus, the more we get to know the real Jesus.  Simple, but profound.  The amazing, mystical gift of our faith.