Hold You Papa?

This is the eighth in a series of Christmas posts written by my brother, Tom.

I was stunned! My granddaughter asked if she could hold ME.  Just that quickly I was transported back half a lifetime remembering my own kids asking the same question.  We would frequently ask our kids, “Do you want me to “hold you”?  It just seemed natural for them to ask “hold you” when they wanted to be held. How many of these phrases have we all heard while raising our kids and now grandkids? Most are lost to time.  I wonder what I said to my parents and them to theirs.

We all have fond memories of mispronounced words and backward phrases that seem to come out of nowhere at just the perfect time to humorously cut the fog of everyday life.  They bring a smile to our faces and sometimes become a part of the families’ exclusive lingo.  Here are a few of ours that we have kept through the years and turn heads when outsiders hear them.

One early morning while my daughter’s curls were all over the place, she exclaimed, “My face is in my face.”  Also, “The bright’s awful sun today.” And my kids' favorite while listening to long rambling stories… “Get to the dot, Dad!”  Some innocent questions become too real and bring a tear when you realize how quickly time moves. “Dad, when I grow up do I have to live in Cincinnati?” 

Christmas brings other memories with almost every ornament rediscovered in the musty box safely stowed since last year.  Ornaments made in kindergarten with the painted name of a favorite childhood dog or cat or ornaments given by special friends and family who have passed on.  Even the storage boxes used for decades from that favorite must have game or toy, now long gone.  All of these deliver a flood of fond memories.

The Scripture tells us that Mary the mother of Jesus “treasured all of these things, pondering them in her heart”.  I think at times we make statements that our heavenly Father finds amusing like, "Hold You PaPa?"   Michelangelo in his famous painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel may have depicted it best.  The portrait shows Adam casually reaching to touch the finger of God, but what we may not always notice is God’s response to his child.  God is leaning over at his fullest extent with angels holding him to keep him from falling!  Quickly we see who is more interested in whom.  In the Christmas season we celebrate God reaching for us.  It is demonstrated in our Father’s greatest gift ...“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”  Isaiah 7:14.