A couple of weeks ago my oldest son Christopher, who now stands at 6'10" and turns 39 today at 1:28 p.m., stopped at the house with a package.
I interviewing someone over the phone, so Rebekah answered the knock at the door. Inside was this little book.
I had sent Christopher the link over the holidays when I'd found a copy on eBay, thinking he might like one of his own, to read to his children or as a keepsake for himself. I had no idea he'd buy it for me.
I'm not certain what happened to my version. It may have been lost when we lost our house in Channahon. Or it may still be packed up in one of the boxes of items we wound up keeping.
But at any rate, the book Christopher bought was a book from my childhood, embellished with crayon scribbbles I don't recall making.
Its copyright is 1951, ten years before I was born, so I'm not certain how my parents acquired the book or how it came to me.
It wasn't one of my favorite books as a child. But it was a perfect book for me to read to Christopher during Advent of 1983, when he was just a year and a half old.
It introduced Christopher to the nativity story but also to the music of writing. The opening lines read:
Gray donkey stook very still.
One long gray ear was up.
One long gray ear was done.
It wasn't long before Christopher could recite some of these lines while I was reading them.
Here are some of the book's interior images. Take special note of the last one.
http://themarlowebookshelf.blogspot.com/2012/12/jesus-little-new-baby.html
Because I should also mention that when I was introducing Christopher to the nativity story, I was also expecting Sarah.
So I was introducing Christopher not just to the baby who was the savior of the world, but that God was blessing our own family with a baby and that he was to become a big brother.
After Sarah was born, and during the times I held her, Chirstopher would tell me I was "holding my precious baby in my arms."
I am certainly no "Blessed Mother."
But I am certainly a "blessed mother."
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