Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Passport (07/25/05)
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TITLE: A cereal moment with Janey | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Zachary
07/27/05 -
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Just the other day, while the two of us were at the kitchen table munching on some dry cereal, she put her spoon down and stared at me.
“Daddy,” she announced, “there’s something I want to show you.”
Without any further explaining, she pushed her chair back, jumped off and walked back to our living room. I couldn’t see what she was doing, but I heard her rummaging for something and then saying, “Here it is.” Moments later, she’d slid herself right back into position, moved our cereal bowls to the side and then lay a small blue object on the space between us.
“Is this you?” she asked, as she opened what I recognized to be my old passport to the photo page.
I smiled and looked intently at Janey, more interested in the reason behind the question than the question itself. What a bright kid,” I thought proudly, giving my side of the family all the credit. Truthfully, I probably tend to think a little too much of myself. In reality, my wife is the brighter of the bulbs in our little family light show, though she’s way too humble to throw that in my face.
I nodded and stared even harder, lowering my head to her level.
“You look much younger then, Daddy.”
Again, I nodded my head.
“You’ve grown older since this picture,” she said, putting one pudgy, cereal-coated finger on the old picture.
Oh where, oh where has my hairline gone? Oh where, oh where can it be? The modified nursery rhyme crept into my thoughts as soon as I realized how much more hair I’d once had.
“Daddy, this picture made me think of something? Since your body gets older, does that mean that your soul also gets older? I know that it doesn’t get wrinkles and gray hair, but does it get older or more…”
She paused, rolling her eyes up towards our ceiling and grinding on a fingernail with her teeth. These were sure signs that her brain was busy searching for something specific.
“Oh, yeah,” she smiled, “does it get more mature?”
I gave Janey a big grin in return for her effort in finding just the right word. Lord, I thought, she is such a blessing and, sometimes, she’s the one doing all the teaching.
I won’t pretend that I didn’t feel some pretty uncomfortable pressure to give my little girl just the right answer. She was one of those children that wouldn’t be satisfied with anything less than what she thought was that one, perfect answer.
Lord, please help me with this, I prayed quietly, keenly aware of my own verbal limitations. I flipped through the passport and noticed a foreign postage stamp with some ink-smeared writing over it. There’s an idea, I thought.
“Janey, do you remember when we went on that trip to Mexico last year?”
She put on a huge smile and nodded her head furiously. Her eyes, which were almost as big as her face, grew even wider.
“I remember the iguanas and the way they called me the little señorita.” I reached out and bumped her chin up just a touch. Janey never gave a “wishy-washy” answer to a question. Her opinions were always fully baked and ready to serve up at a moment’s notice.
“Would being in Mexico be the same as reading about it?”
“Nope.”
“Well,” I said, fixing my eyes on hers, “getting more mature in spirit is sort of the same thing. The difference between knowing Christ and really knowing Christ is the difference between being immature and mature. When you know Christ, then you can explain Him with the same excitement and confidence that you just talked about Mexico.”
Janey leaned back in her chair, reminding me of a judge on a bench thoughtfully considering all the facts offered up in a case.
“I like that,” she said, nodding her head. “It made me think of something else, Daddy. Isn’t the Bible like a passport?”
“How?”
“Well, the passport allowed me to go to Mexico to see it for myself, just like the Bible allows me to see what God really thinks in His own words.”
I reached out and squeezed Janey’s hands and then gave her a big kiss on the cheek.
“Honey, that’s exactly right, exactly right.”
There she was again, teaching the teacher.
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I liked this. God bless and keep writing!