Of little boys and crayons and quilts


What is it about little boys and their trucks? Or tractors or anything else that makes a rumbling noise. Do little boys come with built in motor noises? I think they do. It's like it must be part of their hard wiring.

What is it about getting together with a girlfriend that makes you each curl up on the end of a couch, coffee mug clutched in one hand, the other waving in the air as you add visual exclamation points and solve the world problems? I think it's part of our hard wiring too.

God does a marvelous job of creating people. Each of us beautiful and special, unique in our own ways, with different gifts and skills. Some of us are natural when it comes to offering hospitality, others excel at crafts, still others make the best listeners and encouragers. It is a truly amazing tapestry-- a colorful blend, a patch work quilt.

My patch work quilt has some pretty amazing people... flashes of red; passionate, fiery, strong, some pink-- of the soft sweet variety and the more exuberant fun fuchsias, the happy yellows and life-of-the-party oranges, the true blues, the calming greens, the down to earth sturdy browns, the pure simple beauty of whites and even the serious and classy blacks.

Makes you wonder... if you were a color what color would you be?

I loved the box of 8 crayons I got in first grade and how we learned that yellow and blue make green and blue and red make purple... seemed like I could do just about anything with those basic 8. And then I got into 3rd grade and the box of 48 was on my most wanted list. 6th grade brought the biggest, bestest of all.... the box of 64...,with the built in sharpener no less! Funny how suddenly the little box of 8 was no longer good enough.

I look around at my circle of friends and I realize that while I know and love a lot of people, my personal wiring seems to make me most content with a small group of close friends; an intimate circle. It's back to the box of our basic 8.

But it's good to know that I also have the quilt of extended family and friends that I can pull around me for comfort and warmth when life is hard or cold. I know that I can be found in someone elses crayon box of 8, but I hope I am also a part of someone elses patchwork quilt.

If I was a crayon, I would be the color... hmmm...what do you get when you mix Red and Orange and Blue?