Seeing the Inner Camel in Every Cow

I'll be the first to tell you that the last month has been pretty rough and I'm pretty glad it's about over. Having said that, I'll also tell you that every time I think that, I hear my great grandmother saying "You're wishing your life away..." and I know. She's right. But some days are just rough. And some months are rougher. This last week, I ran across a great quote that really hit home:

"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

That made a whole heck of a lot of sense to me. Of course, by the end of that day, after working with teenagers for eight hours, I was worn out and some of that roughness from the month started seeping back in to my field of view. Here I was, exhausted, and here I was, due at the church to work with more teenagers for bible study. No time for rest right now. I drive up and it's hot and I'm hungry and every child I'm supposed to work with is late. Finally, everyone is there and I begin telling our bible story for the day, about Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Moses has been up on that mountain, working out a covenant with God and rules for people who said they'd follow those rules (but are breaking them as Moses speaks). And my kids are squirming, they're throwing things at each other, and I'm constantly telling them to put up their cell phones until we're finished. Oh, I can relate with Moses. Don't these people see the importance of listening right now? Don't they see the work I'm trying to do? The sacrifices I'm making, just for them? I've no sooner come off my proverbial mountain than they're dancing and singing around golden cellular devices. Moses throws the stone tablets. I tell these hooligans put their phones up. Now. When we finally arrive at the end of my story for the day, it's time to illustrate what we learned in our bible journals (we draw pictures of the story of the day and eventually we'll look at the whole bible, in our own pictures, not just words). Half the kids can't be coralled long enough to get anything drawn and I'm about done in. That's when one little boy leans over to me and asks me, amongst the chaos, with great gravity: "Ma'am?... Is it ok if my golden calf looks more like a golden camel?"

Oh, maybe on another day it would have gotten a smile out of me, but on this day, I just about died laughing. That's when I decided we should take a look at our other pictures. Flipping through their journals, I ask them what each pictures represents. There's the drawing of Lot and his family fleeing Gomorrah, and there's Lot's wife drawn, half salt shaker and half human.

There's Noah with his Ark full of animals, including a "zonkey." Half zebra. Half donkey.

On another page, here's Jacob, about to cheat Esau out of his father's blessing with naught but a warm supper. Jacob has a voice bubble saying "Hi Dad!" and there's Isaac responding with a wisdom-filled, loving statement of "Soup!"

Farther back, there's Abraham. I vaguely remember telling the kids months ago that God told Abraham he'd have a son with Sarah. In their doubt, however, Sarah arranges for Abraham to have a child with Hagar. I told the kids that sometimes we try speed God's work along for Him and that's not what faith is about. Now I will forever remember this story as a crayon drawing with stick figures -Abraham standing between two women, looking at Hagar and a big voice bubble covering the page from God saying "No, not that one!"

I believe that God was quietly reminding me if I'm not careful, I'm going to trade a lot of precious moments of happiness for minutes of anger, and I don't have to. He's showing me that yes, sometimes our best laid plans get more confused than a panel interview at the Tower of Babel. He's showing me that yes, God is about loving people that are hard to love, living a life that's not easy to live, and carrying us when we can't walk on our own anymore, but he's also about joy and laughing and looking at faith through the eyes of a child.

Hey. Sometimes you mean to draw a calf and sometimes you get a camel.

Or a zonkey.