Sweet Memories, Small Children Together

There’s so much I don’t remember about when the kids were little. It is such a joy for me to read through these sweet old memories.

December 3, 1992: “I was washing dishes just now and decided to go check on our girls.  They were in their room.  I asked what they were doing.  Rebecca said she was helping Sarah.  I asked what she was helping her do.  She said they were on the floor.  Several times I asked what they were doing, and finally Rebecca understood the question.  She said, ‘Being cute.’”

This was Murray’s first addition to the “Kids’ List.” No date, but it must have been soon after Caleb joined our family, early in 1993.

Rebecca must have worked out a deal with Murray that she’d get to sweep five times whenever he swept.

“Rebecca was sweeping her ‘5’ before I swept, and she said, ‘Caleb is sweeping!’  I looked, and she had placed the end of the broom handle in Caleb's hand, and was making the actual sweeping motions herself while he just hung onto the end.  She said, ‘Good boy, Caleb.’"

October 18, 1993: “Rebecca pushed Caleb, and he was upset.  I told her to give him a hug and tell him she was sorry.  She said she was sorry but did not give him a hug.  Caleb shouted, ‘No! Give me a hug!’  She didn't want to, but finally Rebecca gave Caleb a ‘hard hug.’  He laughed, and they seem to be friends again.”

November 13, 1993:  “Rebecca was bothering Caleb; Murray brought her into the office to talk to her, then set her back in the living room and said, ‘There's Caleb; don't hassle him.’  A little later, the kids were playing happily together, and Caleb said, ‘Don't hassle me.  Don't ever hassle me again.’"

December 24, 1993 “Yesterday, Murray and Sarah went to the doctor.  When they got home, Rebecca saw them coming through the window and said, ‘Mommy, Sarah's walking by herself; is that safe?’"

“This morning, Rebecca answered a toy phone call and said, ‘Caleb, it's President Bill.  He's in California.’"

We have nothing written that either child sounded surprised. They must have been used to getting calls from the president of the United States.

When Rebecca was young, she realized it made sense to distinguish between her “hair head” and her “forehead.” It’s still a family regular today.

“Later:  After the kids were in bed, Sarah came in and said, crying, ‘Becca hit my--ummmm--hair head.’  I went with her back to their room and asked Rebecca if she'd done this thing.  ‘Yeah,’ she said.  I asked why, and she replied, ‘I don't know.’"

March 7, 1994: “Last night Sarah was crying on and on at bed time.  Rebecca said to her, ‘Sarah, you're crying for no reason.’"

“Right now Caleb and Rebecca are in Caleb's room telling each other jokes.  They'll say things like, ‘My city bus is blue,’ ‘My school is yellow,’ ‘A diner is a restaurant,’ or ‘The restaurant is a mall,’ and then burst into peals of laughter.

I got to see Neil Diamond!

Neil Diamond is one of my favorite singers from my younger years.

I happened to hear on the radio last Friday that he was going to be in Cleveland on his 50^th anniversary tour. I forgot to mention it to Murray until Sunday.

I didn’t notice when it said he was coming. When Murray checked, it turned out it was this Tuesday. Murray was scheduled to work, and the price was higher than we liked. I forgot about it.

After I’d gone to bed for the evening, Murray got to work. Sarah said he was really excited about it.

“He kept coming in my room, whispering about it, even though there was no way you could hear with your door closed.”

He found a better price ticket, arranged so he could leave work early, found someone who could pick me up and meet him at the train station to save time, snuck out to buy the tickets before Drug-Mart closed for the evening, and left a note about it for me to find taped to my coffee cup when I got up in the morning.

We were on the highest level at THE Q, (home of the Cleveland Cavaliers), but Murray told me not to worry. “We can take the elevator.”

When we got off the train and were going into tower City, Murray saw that the lady walking in front of us was wearing a Neil Diamond T-shirt. He told her, “Ma’am, I know where you’re going.” She laughed.

Murray said almost everybody at the concert was our age or older.

But us older people sure made a lot of noise—clapping, cheering, whistling, singing along. Murray said the man on his other side spent most of the concert “chair dancing.”

Murray told me as we went in that he bet when Neil Diamond was twenty years old, he probably wouldn’t have believed that when he was seventy, he’d be able to fill a stadium with people for a concert. “He was probably just thinking ‘I hope I can make enough to pay the rent.’”

Neil Diamond was loud, filled with energy, singing strong, interacting with the audience, yelling. It took me a few minutes to stop wondering how a man who was in his 70s could still do that, but finally I was just able to enjoy it.

I’ve always just loved Neil Diamond’s sound, his voice, the flow and pull of the music. It’s still filled with as much emotion as always.

The sound quality up at the top was great, but I couldn’t understand all the words. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to understand what all the songs were talking about.

But the emotion, the pull, the draw of his music was still there. Most of the evening I wanted to cry, but also to smile, and laugh, and tap my feet.

He brought such good pictures to mind, of his family when he was growing up, of young people in love, of dreams, and pain, of beliefs. It again encouraged me to want to bring that kind of emotion to people with words.

Murray told me that at Ball Parks, when people sang “Sweet Caroline,” and it came to the part where it says, “Good times never seemed so good”, people always sang “so good, so good, so good,” and he was going to do that at the concert. I said that maybe people don’t do that at concerts, but he promised me he was going to. It was okay; everybody did. Murray said, “Me and twenty thousand other people.”

Grace and Truth, John 2:13-25

I’ve often read about the times that Jesus cleared the temple.

There were those who were trying to get rich by selling to people who came to the temple from far away, wanting to make offerings. Jesus did not approve of the way this was done.

I’ve heard it said this is an example of righteous anger. This is true, but that’s not the thought this passage is bringing into my head today.

Jesus was angry about how they were using his Father’s house. And I believe he was also angry because they were cheating people who had come long distances to make offerings at the temple. They had no choice but to buy what these sellers and money changers had to offer, and I believe Jesus was angry because people who wanted to worship at the temple were being cheated.

However, I think a lot of what he was doing at this time was teaching the disciples. In verse 17 it says his disciples remembered that Psalm 69 had predicted that Jesus would do this.

Later, when Jesus predicts his resurrection, it also says that the disciples remembered this after he rose, and they believed him.

Jesus had only a short time to teach his disciples, those who would be in charge of starting the church and finishing the Bible, which had to survived centuries to come to us today. I think he was power teaching.

I have such a crusty heart. Often when I read the Bible, it’s easier for me to see God as harsh and not notice his gentleness. I’m glad as I read this passage today, it makes me smile when I think about him “power-teaching” his disciples, trying to get in as much as possible in the short time he had with them.