(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf on 4/27/2012)
Preface:
This is one of the oddest short stories I have ever written for the blog; all the way back in April 27, 2012, way before I even knew my grandson; Vinny. My daughter married Vinny's Dad when Vinny was six.
The boy I imagined in the story was named David, but other than that; the way I described him is EXACTLY like Vinny, in every detail. I'm pretty amazed at this now; looking back. I also saw this same child, who looked exactly like Vinny, in a vision once during a time of prayer. The vision I had reassured me of a time of happiness coming in the future for all who were concerned with him and in his life. I had no knowledge of the child at that point either!
So this story grows more precious to me every year as time goes by and I often ponder all the different layers of what it truly means. The rest of the words from this point forward are what I wrote back in 2012:
Preface:
This is one of the oddest short stories I have ever written for the blog; all the way back in April 27, 2012, way before I even knew my grandson; Vinny. My daughter married Vinny's Dad when Vinny was six.
The boy I imagined in the story was named David, but other than that; the way I described him is EXACTLY like Vinny, in every detail. I'm pretty amazed at this now; looking back. I also saw this same child, who looked exactly like Vinny, in a vision once during a time of prayer. The vision I had reassured me of a time of happiness coming in the future for all who were concerned with him and in his life. I had no knowledge of the child at that point either!
So this story grows more precious to me every year as time goes by and I often ponder all the different layers of what it truly means. The rest of the words from this point forward are what I wrote back in 2012:
2012 Preface:
You know, I do not have any grandchildren yet, but I yearn for some.
I believe that all good things come stepping softly into our lives in God's good time; and I'm patiently waiting for that day. This may sound a little strange to some of you, but sometimes I imagine that I have a grandson. He is about four years old in these little imaginations that come from somewhere in my brain, and I'm not sure of his name, but in this story I'll call him David. He has thick curly blonde hair and very blue eyes and pale skin. He is a very bright little boy, and I imagine that we always spend a lot of time talking about the most important things in life.
Please don't think I've lost my mind now; I've been told that this phenomenon happens often to writers, especially the most creative ones. It will be interesting to see if this sweet little boy really happens. I certainly do hope so!
TEACHING OUR CHILDREN TO NUMBER THEIR DAYS
The sun was slipping into the night sky. It was that magical time just before dark when the working day is done and you are preparing to relax and enjoy your family to the fullest with a nice quiet family dinner. David and I were sharing time together, puttering around the kitchen. We had spent most of the afternoon in my kitchen baking cookies with the back door positioned wide open letting the sunlight shine in through the glass storm door so we could monitor all that was going on with the cat out on our back deck. We also observed him through the full kitchen windows. David loved the cat and we had named him Captain Jack. David had to know everything that was going on with Captain Jack. So, I was letting them spend some time together on the deck while I was preparing a fresh spring salad for our table. David had come inside without me realizing it.
“ Grandma, what is an Omer?” asks the inquisitive child tugging at my shirt and looking up at me for an answer.
An Omer is a way of measuring an amount of grain.” I put it into terms that I thought he would understand, not elaborating too much so as not to lose him in the details.
“Sort of like using this measuring cup you cook with?” He pointed to the one on our kitchen counter.
“Yes, sort of like that. From Passover until Pentecost the ancient People of God would bring their barley crops to God as an offering, and they would measure it to be the size of an omer. ” I pulled a quart of milk out of the refrigerator and said, "It would be about the size of two of these."
"I could drink two of those in one day Grandma."
"Well David, that was part of the theory around the Omer. It was supposed to equal the measurement of enough food for just one day. Remember me telling you the story about God sending the Manna from Heaven to the People of Israel?" He nodded. "The amount they gathered to feed themselves for one day in the wilderness would be one Omer."
“What do you think this kitty thinks about Grandma?”
"Oh – I don’t know, but kitties do not think like you and me, David, they think different. God made people and God made animals. God made us to love one another, and God made us to love and take care of our animals, but we are made to think and live different from our animals.”
“No, dear. We make decisions and animals are instinctive. You see, animals live for the moment they are in. They don't remember the events of an hour ago, let alone the things that happened last week."
I could see we needed to explore this further. "You know how you upset the kitty when you pulled his tail yesterday?”
Laughing at the memory, and knowing he had been caught, he looks up at me with that mischievous little grin. “Well, he doesn’t remember that at all. You and I would remember such a thing, but look how he just purrs and slips up in your lap for you to pet him. He doesn’t remember.”
I could see the child thinking this over.
“ You and I know that you are four, but the kitty doesn’t have any concept of how old or young he is. He wouldn’t be able to celebrate his birthday, because he is totally unaware of anything to do with growing up and getting older each day.
“No birthdays! I’m glad I’m not a cat!”
“
Now it was my time to smile. I remembered last year when he asked me every day for six months how long it would be until he turned four.
“This little kitty just takes every day as it comes, they all are the same to him. He appreciates everyone that he meets, no matter how nice or mean they are to him. "
.”
“Yes – I can always see you, in the stands every time I look up.”
“Well, this cat can’t recognize his mother, or sister, or brother for how they are related to him. Once he has grown they all will be nothing but just another cat to him. If he passed by them, say at the concession stand at the ball park, Captain Jack would just think they were the same as any other cat.”
His already round eyes grew rounder and wider. “Wow, I’m glad I’m not a cat. That sounds too sad.”
He kept playing silently, but I could tell he was pondering the things we had spoken about in his sweet young heart, and I could almost see the wheels of his active little brain turning and spinning out his ideas about the subject.
Funny, I was thinking about these things too. I found myself reflecting about something I had been trying to put into effect in my own daily life. I had been trying to be very consistent about "living in the present moment only," never looking back, not looking forward either, just BEING where I was when whatever was going on around me happened. I wondered why I had decided to start doing this. Was it all good? Had this theory seemed acceptable to me because of my own human wounds from a broken life?
Had my past not been healed, and was I too afraid of asking God to show me His plans for the future?
Was I putting so much emphasis on my wounds and fears that I was using them as an excuse to cop out of a balanced life?
I serve a God who heals and a God who tells me never to be afraid. Forgetting the past and not planning for the future would not be the way God had ordered me to live. I was positive that the basic theory of this "living in the moment only" was a good thing and it just felt right. It had a proper place of importance in my time that required godly discernment; but like everything else in life, it could get out of balance if not tempered with a little remembering of the past and a little planning for the future. All three things should work together for a healthy balanced life.
I treasured this epiphany in my kitchen while making salad. I was thankful that a simple conversation with a child could help me to regain a proper perspective on how to live. I gave myself permission to stop listening to the shallow voices of the world, that had almost tempted me into the danger of slipping into a place of not wanting to put forth the extra effort to remember and plan as well as enjoy the moment of the present day.
Isn't this what counting the Omer was really about?
In celebrating the Passover Seder together as a family, we had remembered the past. We stopped on that day to refresh our minds and hearts with the moments of the past, to saturate our senses with God's beautiful stories of the history of His people. We stopped to go to the cross with The Lamb of God, getting the full picture of His suffering, and remembering what He had done for us in this season of His time on earth.
We felt the thrill of being liberated from our own personal slavery as we read about how God's people were delivered from Egyptian slavery. We reveled in it. We were reminded of our lives before we knew Christ as our Most Holy Messiah, and we wondered and marveled at how He transformed us from living in the bondage of sin into a life of freedom.
As I looked at David, growing every day, I realized I had some growing to do myself; I too had to become more aware of how God intended for His people to live and think. After all, He had given us this great gift that made us higher than the animals of whom we were to watch over and care for. We could actually think these things through and act on what we believed to be right every day as we walked through our lives.
I savored this moment of realization that my grandson was learning, growing, changing into a youngster who ponders and asks questions. His learning was teaching me so much!
With new found discernment and wisdom, I let myself live in this present tense with a refreshed gladness and a thankful heart. It was a luxury I quite enjoyed. Yet, even now, I was planning for him in my mind, praying for his future to be bright and good. It was a good moment where God was revealing this blessing to me, and I held it close and treasured it in my heart, knowing that it would bubble over one day in the future and bless someone else because we had lived this day.
Since the second day of Unleavened Bread, we had been counting the days together and reciting a special blessing each day of this seven-week journey from Passover till Pentecost, just like the Children of God did in the Exodus as they moved out of bondage to the Egyptians and inched toward Mount Sinai and received the Torah.
Each day I told my precious grandson more of the stories of their journey. He was always anxious to hear what happened next in the great adventures of the People of God. I could rest assured that my grandson was in line for some awesome adventures from God himself. I reveled in sharing the experience of this old, old tradition with him. I knew it was helping him learn to count, to observe the days of the weeks on the calendar, but even more, I knew it was giving him spiritual formation for the years to come when we shared the prayers and the stories.
This time with David blessed me in so many ways.
I was learning, through the experience of teaching my grandson, that there is a time for everything; a time to remember, a time to be. and a time to plan.
I was realizing that the story of The People of God taught me that there was a time to obtain freedom, a time to believe, and a time to learn how to manage that freedom wisely and correctly and put those beliefs into daily actions.
I could see it clearly in these little moments in our home together.
I could see it clearly in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
I could see it clearly in Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost.
Time marches on and on and God keeps it well for us.
We keep remembering; we keep living; we keep hoping.
We know that counting these days ultimately points us to the giving of God’s Holy Spirit.
In examining our lives as we go through the days we know we are about to receive the ultimate gift in abundance. It is a gift that will fill our hearts with love, compassion and worship. The Holy Spirit is how we are able to prepare for our future. The whole house of God also must be built up through the people who now make up His body. The Holy Spirit leads us with discernment and love, grace and mercy.
We aren’t like the cat; we can think, and hope and remember and relate. Because we are higher than the animals, God shows us how to count our days, and instructs us to make the most of them, to aspire to be better people in the future than we were in the past.
When Pentecost is fully come we will be offering up the wheat harvest. It is a better blessing, a higher blessing.
We anticipate this higher thing as we count the days and go through the necessary things in order to reach the places we want and need to be.
After Passover we tend to the necessary things, the tedious part of our humanity, the parts of us that grow like a crop of barley.
All things come together in God’s good order.
The Omer measures out the barley until Pentecost. At Pentecost there will be two loaves of wheat waved before God; two loaves of the higher blessings offered up for The Kingdom of God in holy worship. They represent the firstfruits of the best crop, the part of the Church and Israel together that represents us rising above our human natures into God's holiness.
This is our hope that He will turn us from people who often only behave like animals eating common barley, into people who behave according to the image of God and and feed on the wheat of The Word.
My heart is filled with wonder at how God's Word has provided a patterned, detailed map for us to live out our time on this earth. He had given us full instructions in the scriptures, and He provided for seasons and times for us to stop and ponder these things in our hearts. I loved each season and each of it's delightful aspects.
“Sort of like using this measuring cup you cook with?” He pointed to the one on our kitchen counter.
“Yes, sort of like that. From Passover until Pentecost the ancient People of God would bring their barley crops to God as an offering, and they would measure it to be the size of an omer. ” I pulled a quart of milk out of the refrigerator and said, "It would be about the size of two of these."
"I could drink two of those in one day Grandma."
"Well David, that was part of the theory around the Omer. It was supposed to equal the measurement of enough food for just one day. Remember me telling you the story about God sending the Manna from Heaven to the People of Israel?" He nodded. "The amount they gathered to feed themselves for one day in the wilderness would be one Omer."
“Oh – okay.” He seemed satisfied for a few minutes, taking a short pause from the midst of his never ending trail of questions. "David, I am proud that you are thinking about these things. You are asking me good questions!” He nodded at me, glad that I seemed pleased, and reached down to pet our cat who was passing by and rubbing against his legs.
"Oh – I don’t know, but kitties do not think like you and me, David, they think different. God made people and God made animals. God made us to love one another, and God made us to love and take care of our animals, but we are made to think and live different from our animals.”
“But doesn’t the kitty think and live just like me?”
“No, dear. We make decisions and animals are instinctive. You see, animals live for the moment they are in. They don't remember the events of an hour ago, let alone the things that happened last week."
I could see we needed to explore this further. "You know how you upset the kitty when you pulled his tail yesterday?”
Laughing at the memory, and knowing he had been caught, he looks up at me with that mischievous little grin. “Well, he doesn’t remember that at all. You and I would remember such a thing, but look how he just purrs and slips up in your lap for you to pet him. He doesn’t remember.”
I could see the child thinking this over.
“ You and I know that you are four, but the kitty doesn’t have any concept of how old or young he is. He wouldn’t be able to celebrate his birthday, because he is totally unaware of anything to do with growing up and getting older each day.
“No birthdays! I’m glad I’m not a cat!”
Now it was my time to smile. I remembered last year when he asked me every day for six months how long it would be until he turned four. “This little kitty just takes every day as it comes, they all are the same to him. He appreciates everyone that he meets, no matter how nice or mean they are to him. "
I pondered my own words. Hmmmm....." Sometimes I wish we COULD think like that.”
“Yeah, I think that would be nice too, only I don’t think I could be as nice to people who were mean to me as those who gave me chocolate cake.”
'Right! God made us to think about things like that, but God made the animals without any judgmental behaviors at all; and He designed them to live only in the present moment. They could never plan to be at the ball park at 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. They just are not made to think like that. They always enjoy whatever is going on right now, but they can't think past that moment or even remember the things that they were enjoying yesterday.
'Right! God made us to think about things like that, but God made the animals without any judgmental behaviors at all; and He designed them to live only in the present moment. They could never plan to be at the ball park at 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon. They just are not made to think like that. They always enjoy whatever is going on right now, but they can't think past that moment or even remember the things that they were enjoying yesterday.
“So, Grandma, do you mean if they hit a home run and it was the play that won the game, they wouldn’t even think about it the next day?” He looked astonished.
“Not at all. They would never think about it again. You know how you can pick me out in the crowd when it is your time to bat in T-ball?”
.”
“Yes – I can always see you, in the stands every time I look up.” “Well, this cat can’t recognize his mother, or sister, or brother for how they are related to him. Once he has grown they all will be nothing but just another cat to him. If he passed by them, say at the concession stand at the ball park, Captain Jack would just think they were the same as any other cat.”
“And you know how granddaddy planned this house for us, and built it good and strong because he wanted to protect us from the rain and cold, and he wanted us to have a safe, dry place to sleep and eat and play?”
“Yes…”
“Well, cats can’t plan things like that. They just have to live through whatever happens. “
“Oh.”
His already round eyes grew rounder and wider. “Wow, I’m glad I’m not a cat. That sounds too sad.”
He kept playing silently, but I could tell he was pondering the things we had spoken about in his sweet young heart, and I could almost see the wheels of his active little brain turning and spinning out his ideas about the subject.
Funny, I was thinking about these things too. I found myself reflecting about something I had been trying to put into effect in my own daily life. I had been trying to be very consistent about "living in the present moment only," never looking back, not looking forward either, just BEING where I was when whatever was going on around me happened. I wondered why I had decided to start doing this. Was it all good? Had this theory seemed acceptable to me because of my own human wounds from a broken life?
Had my past not been healed, and was I too afraid of asking God to show me His plans for the future?
Was I putting so much emphasis on my wounds and fears that I was using them as an excuse to cop out of a balanced life?
I serve a God who heals and a God who tells me never to be afraid. Forgetting the past and not planning for the future would not be the way God had ordered me to live. I was positive that the basic theory of this "living in the moment only" was a good thing and it just felt right. It had a proper place of importance in my time that required godly discernment; but like everything else in life, it could get out of balance if not tempered with a little remembering of the past and a little planning for the future. All three things should work together for a healthy balanced life.
I treasured this epiphany in my kitchen while making salad. I was thankful that a simple conversation with a child could help me to regain a proper perspective on how to live. I gave myself permission to stop listening to the shallow voices of the world, that had almost tempted me into the danger of slipping into a place of not wanting to put forth the extra effort to remember and plan as well as enjoy the moment of the present day.
Isn't this what counting the Omer was really about?
In celebrating the Passover Seder together as a family, we had remembered the past. We stopped on that day to refresh our minds and hearts with the moments of the past, to saturate our senses with God's beautiful stories of the history of His people. We stopped to go to the cross with The Lamb of God, getting the full picture of His suffering, and remembering what He had done for us in this season of His time on earth.
We felt the thrill of being liberated from our own personal slavery as we read about how God's people were delivered from Egyptian slavery. We reveled in it. We were reminded of our lives before we knew Christ as our Most Holy Messiah, and we wondered and marveled at how He transformed us from living in the bondage of sin into a life of freedom.
As I looked at David, growing every day, I realized I had some growing to do myself; I too had to become more aware of how God intended for His people to live and think. After all, He had given us this great gift that made us higher than the animals of whom we were to watch over and care for. We could actually think these things through and act on what we believed to be right every day as we walked through our lives.
I savored this moment of realization that my grandson was learning, growing, changing into a youngster who ponders and asks questions. His learning was teaching me so much!
With new found discernment and wisdom, I let myself live in this present tense with a refreshed gladness and a thankful heart. It was a luxury I quite enjoyed. Yet, even now, I was planning for him in my mind, praying for his future to be bright and good. It was a good moment where God was revealing this blessing to me, and I held it close and treasured it in my heart, knowing that it would bubble over one day in the future and bless someone else because we had lived this day.
"David, are you ready to count the Omer?”
His eyes lit up with excitement. “Yes, Grandma!, Oh, will you let me mark through the day on the calendar, please?”
“First we must say our prayer. What day are we on now? We must stop and consider where we are in time.”
Since the second day of Unleavened Bread, we had been counting the days together and reciting a special blessing each day of this seven-week journey from Passover till Pentecost, just like the Children of God did in the Exodus as they moved out of bondage to the Egyptians and inched toward Mount Sinai and received the Torah.
Each day I told my precious grandson more of the stories of their journey. He was always anxious to hear what happened next in the great adventures of the People of God. I could rest assured that my grandson was in line for some awesome adventures from God himself. I reveled in sharing the experience of this old, old tradition with him. I knew it was helping him learn to count, to observe the days of the weeks on the calendar, but even more, I knew it was giving him spiritual formation for the years to come when we shared the prayers and the stories.
This time with David blessed me in so many ways. I was learning, through the experience of teaching my grandson, that there is a time for everything; a time to remember, a time to be. and a time to plan.
I was realizing that the story of The People of God taught me that there was a time to obtain freedom, a time to believe, and a time to learn how to manage that freedom wisely and correctly and put those beliefs into daily actions.
I could see it clearly in these little moments in our home together.
I could see it clearly in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
I could see it clearly in Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost.
Time marches on and on and God keeps it well for us.
We keep remembering; we keep living; we keep hoping.
We know that counting these days ultimately points us to the giving of God’s Holy Spirit.
In examining our lives as we go through the days we know we are about to receive the ultimate gift in abundance. It is a gift that will fill our hearts with love, compassion and worship. The Holy Spirit is how we are able to prepare for our future. The whole house of God also must be built up through the people who now make up His body. The Holy Spirit leads us with discernment and love, grace and mercy.
We aren’t like the cat; we can think, and hope and remember and relate. Because we are higher than the animals, God shows us how to count our days, and instructs us to make the most of them, to aspire to be better people in the future than we were in the past.
When Pentecost is fully come we will be offering up the wheat harvest. It is a better blessing, a higher blessing.
We anticipate this higher thing as we count the days and go through the necessary things in order to reach the places we want and need to be.
After Passover we tend to the necessary things, the tedious part of our humanity, the parts of us that grow like a crop of barley.
All things come together in God’s good order.
The Omer measures out the barley until Pentecost. At Pentecost there will be two loaves of wheat waved before God; two loaves of the higher blessings offered up for The Kingdom of God in holy worship. They represent the firstfruits of the best crop, the part of the Church and Israel together that represents us rising above our human natures into God's holiness.
This is our hope that He will turn us from people who often only behave like animals eating common barley, into people who behave according to the image of God and and feed on the wheat of The Word.
My heart is filled with wonder at how God's Word has provided a patterned, detailed map for us to live out our time on this earth. He had given us full instructions in the scriptures, and He provided for seasons and times for us to stop and ponder these things in our hearts. I loved each season and each of it's delightful aspects.
Looking at my sweet grandson playing with our cat, I truly pondered that the sweet little kitty could not remember how we had found him; abandoned on the highway. We had picked him up and brought him into a safe home where he would be well fed and loved. We had given him a special name. He was totally oblivious to all of this, simply lazing around in the sunshine all day long. He didn’t even realize what a blessing had been bestowed upon him or think of any of the misery he had left behind.
Could I sometimes be guilty of living the same way?
I was glad that God had given us the ability to remember things, and I was glad that we were teaching our grandson to ponder the changes that God brought about and allowed in his own journey through life.
God in His Majesty always has this way of bringing the past, present and future together. He connects the dots of our days. So, we keep remembering the past. We keep living in the moment. We keep faithfully counting the 49 days between Passover and Pentecost and marking them off on the calendar with anticipation toward our future.
God in His Majesty always has this way of bringing the past, present and future together. He connects the dots of our days. So, we keep remembering the past. We keep living in the moment. We keep faithfully counting the 49 days between Passover and Pentecost and marking them off on the calendar with anticipation toward our future.
May each new year find us in a more sacred place, and may each of our lives be a more acceptable sacrifice in the service of God, as we grow in the holiness of God and teach our children to do the same.
