How do you know if a washcloth is clean?

Our kids really do provide us with so much joy and laughter.  There is never a dull moment at our house…and rarely ever a quiet one either.  Jaxon, who is three and a half, is such an outgoing, active, funny, wonderful kid.  We had a very “interesting” exchange this morning, that I thought was worth capturing in writing.

I was washing my face and he was in the bathroon with me.  Nothing unusual about that.

As I had my face all lathered up with soap, Jaxon said, “Mommy, I need your help.”

“Hold on a second, sweetie,” I replied.  With my eyes tightly shut to avoid the sting of getting soap in them I felt around the basin of the sink for my washcloth — but I couldn’t find it.

Suddenly a sweet little hand offered it up to me.  I took it and finished drying my face with it.

“Now,” I said afterwards, “What was it you needed my help with?”

“Oh, nothing now, Mommy.  I just used your washcloth to wipe my pee-pee off the toilet seat.”

I guess it’s true, in the job description for moms — you’ve gotta wear some pee, throw-up and a little bit of everything else to get the job done.  I just shook my head and  laughed outloud at Jaxon…

…and then washed my face thoroughly again.

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A Spiritual Spin on Frankenstein

It used to be called “Sunday School” when I was growing up.  Nowdays, we call it “LIFE Group” at my church.  But you know what I’m talking about, right?  — The gathering on Sunday mornings to talk about real life issues and study the Bible and spiritual things.  I am blessed to have a great teacher.  He’s always spot on with the lessons.  So this week’s topic was a little…um…unusual to say the least.  It was – of all things – “Frankenstein.”

Now you may ask yourself (as I did), “What the heck can you derive spiritually from the story of Frankenstein?”  Ahhh, I am glad you asked.  Because as our teacher began to weave the intricacies of the legendary story, I actually had an “a ha moment.”

I must admit I wasn’t too familiar with the classic story.  I mean, truthfully my knowledge of Frankenstein is pretty limited to watching “The Munsters.”  And ironically, Mary Shelley who wrote the story was not a Christian, but there is a significant spiritual correlation.

Here’s the deal:  Dr. Frankenstein created his monster sort of on a whim.  Out of arrogance it seems, he wanted to see if he could do it.  So he combined parts from the morgue and the slaughter house (let that one really sink in for a minute).  With very little regard for making the creation much to look at – the end result was rather repulsive to the doctor.  As a result he was disgusted by the results of his efforts and abandoned the monster.  He spent much of his time either trying to hide from him, ignore him and even later on kill him.

The monster, on the other hand, longed for a relationship with his creator. He was lonely.  When he was abandoned by the doctor who created him, he rebelled and wreaked havoc on everyone and everything he could as a result…with disastrous consequences.

The point of sharing this story in a spiritual context is to say that we are so blessed that our “Creator” not only looks on us with love and compassion; but He took the time to make us perfectly and in His own image.  Fearfully and wonderfully, we are made.  He says we are the apple of His eye.  And He longs to communicate with us.

How awesome is that?

There is a lot of talk about Frankenstein-type stuff at this time of year.  So the lesson from this past week was timely.  And the contrast between the two creators (Dr. Frank and God) makes me extremely grateful to have been created by the latter.