Weekly e-news October 18, 2019
Hey, everyone!
It’s gonna be an awesome day!
The sun is bright!
The sun is up!
It’s warm like the coffee
in my cup!
The air is clear,
The sky is blue!
What a day to praise
my Lord! For you!
Wow.
Where’d that Dr Seussiness come from?!
Oh. I remember now…
I was reading this article about how a certain scholar had written in Life Magazine in the 1950’s explaining why kids (when I was one) were behind in reading. Mostly it had to do with the Dick and Jane readers they used and how booooooring they were!
I wish they’d asked us! I coulda told ‘em!
“See Jane run! Run, Jane! Run! Run!”
Zzzzzzzz……
The scholar wrote that “…boys and girls are confronted with books that have insipid illustrations depicting the slicked-up lives of other children... All feature abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls.... In bookstores anyone can buy brighter, livelier books featuring… children who behave naturally, i.e., sometimes misbehave…”
A publisher who read it challenged Dr Seuss to write a book that “…a first grader couldn’t put down.”
That’s what I’m talking about!
About real kids and times when stuff goes wrong!
So…
Theodore Geisel (“Dr Suess")a wrote a story about a cat in a red and white hat complete with red bowtie who comes uninvited to a house of Sally and her brother, bored out of their minds on a rainy day and who proposes to entertain them with a balancing trick involving their conscientious fish!
“Why, we can have lots of good fun, if you wish
with a game that I call up-up-up with a fish!‘
'Put me down!' said the fish. 'This is no fun at all!
Put me down!‘ said the fish. 'I do NOT wish to fall!'
'Have no fear!' said the Cat. ‘I will not let you fall!
I will hold you up high as I stand on a ball!
With a book on one hand!
And a cup on my hat!
But that is not ALL I can do!…
Look at me! Look at me now!' said the Cat…”
Before long, the Cat was balancing on a ball
with a cup and a cake on the top of his hat…
two books…
the fish on a rake…
a little toy ship!
some milk in a dish
a little toy man…
and with his tail he held a red fan…
(The kids were freaking out by this time)
“I can fan with the fan as I hop on the ball!
But that is not all!
Oh, no! That is not all…
…then he fell on his head!
He came down with a bump
from up there on the ball.
And Sally and I saw…
ALL the things fall!!”
That’s one of the reasons I love the Book I read every morning!
It’s about those who weren’t…and aren’t…perfect…
Couldn’t be and (because of Jesus!) don’t have to be!
And it’s about the wise Savior I can trust even if I’m going through one of those times (and we will!) when you think you’ve got it all together until the moment when…
“all things fall”
One of my favorite Scriptures was written by a prophet for a time like that.
Habakkuk was going thru days when nothing was going well but he proclaimed that, because of the God we love, his faith was as strong as ever!
No matter what!
“Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
I will be joyful in God my Savior…” (Habakkuk 3.17-18)
Mmmmm…I love that so much!
Or to quote it in the Dr Seuss translation…
“Tho’ the fig has no bud,
No grape falls with a thud,
Tho’ the olives ain’t growin’,
In the field there’s no sowin’,
Tho’ the sheep gives no wool,
the cows’ utters aren’t full,
My God’s praises I’ll sing!
And rejoice! He’s still King!”