Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Thursday February 14, 2008

Dr. Van's newsletter carried the following and being the dog lover that I am I had to share it with my friends, with a comment or two on how this ties into Valentine's Day. It should be obvious, but read the story first:

"An old, tired-looking dog wandered into the yard. I could tell from his collar and well-fed belly that he had a home. He followed me into the house, down the hall, and fell asleep in a corner. An hour later, he went to the door, and I let him out. The next day he was back, resumed his position in the hall, and slept for an hour. This continued for several weeks. Curious, I pinned a note to his collar: 'Every afternoon your dog comes to my house for a nap.' The next day he arrived with a different note pinned to his collar: 'He lives in a home with ten children -- he's trying to catch up on his sleep.' Then the note concluded: 'Can I come with him tomorrow?'"

At the risk of being defrocked, I love the country song, nasal twang and all about loving "Old dogs, children and watermelon wine," with emphasis on old dogs.

Can anyone younger than fifty even imagine living in a house with ten children? When I was a young'un such was normal, now it causes neighbors to wonder how any work gets done.

As I understand it the foundation of our nation is the creation and maintenance of strong families, in which each member does his or her part, thus having a grass roots grasp of how things ought to be in the world at large. It worked well for a time. Now, since we have much smaller families, I think the current median is 1½ children per family, we have forgotten the blessing of sharing and taking turns and all pitching in to help. And to be honest I visit many homes where the 1½ children make more of mess than all 11 of our family would have dared to make. When you do the math on the median number of children you come to a stunning realization that in such families one of the offspring may be limited due to having only half of a brain, and I have heard numerous people speak of members of the family as having only ½ of other body parts. And children from such small families must have trouble when placed into a situation in the real world where the concerns and needs of several hundred people must considered, understanding just why the world is so cruel as be structured in such a way as to deprive them of the place of honor they have come to see as normal. After all, they are not the only people in the world, but in their little world they expect to be numero uno or least half way to that coveted number.

Joyce and I have been married for going on 44 years and during this wartime we had five children, two of whom who lived past birth. We love them. I can only imagine the pain of the families who have half a child. I think if they were more romantic they could at least deal in whole numbers, thus having children who are better equipped to live in the real world. When we started out I had hopes of 10 children. Along about five Joyce had very different ideas. As a testimony to my wisdom we had five. I honestly think each of the children at one point or another acted as though they were in line with modern statistics and could have been ½. But on Valentine's Day all married lovers should really get a good image of the wonder of 10 children gathered around the table, in awesome wonder at how dear Mother could love all of them the same.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2008 Use with credit

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