Another vignette in the life of our family — a day in the life of our boys and me. It always amazes me how we are able to learn from children. This is an afternoon that is etched on my heart. Although the conversation may not have gone exactly as I’ve written it, it was close to this. Our boys have grown and changed. In fact, they are now men which makes it even more important that these memories be saved and shared. These moments and others that are frozen in time are precious to me — especially when God used them to speak to me.

“Look, Mommy, look! There’s an elephant!” Benji exclaimed, pointing his chubby fingers at the cloud floating by.

“That’s not an elephant,” Phillip seriously explained, “it’s a walrus.”

Suddenly the trampoline where they lay bucked and their bodies bounced on the warm black mat. The boys squealed as Nathan flopped into the middle, smacking his gum and wriggling into a spot between Ben and Mom. “Watcha’ doin’?” he asked.

In his usual adult-like voice Phillip answered, “Cloud watching, found a walrus a minute ago.”

“Nu uh… it was an elephant,” corrected Benji sticking his tongue out at his brother.

“Ooooh, Benji, you just told Phillip you loved him! Remember, Mom said when we stick out our tongue at someone we’re really saying, ‘I love you,’” Nathan teased.

Before the argument escalated Mom interrupted, “Nathan, did you bring the sunscreen?”

Taking it from his proffered hand she reminded them to apply it carefully. “Okay boys, if we’re taking our afternoon rest on the trampoline, we’re going to wear sunscreen so here we go.” Quickly, the sunscreen was rubbed onto legs, arms, ears, freckled noses, necks, and grinning faces. “One more spot!” she said asking them to close their eyes and rub a bit of sunscreen onto their closed eyelids and the tender skin around them.

“Mommy, why do we have to put sun screen on our eyeballs?” Phillip asked.

“Well, I know that we aren’t napping,” she said winking at the two older boys, “but just in case someone falls asleep, we don’t want any eyelids getting burned and getting blisters. Ouch!”

“Oh yeah, that happened to you when you were in college. You burned your eyelids, had big old blisters, and couldn’t open your eyes for a couple of days, didn’t it Mom?” Nathan asked while telling the often-repeated story.

Her heart broke a little at his use of “Mom,” rather than Mommy. Her boys were growing up too fast.
“Yes it did,” she said as she tickled his feet. “It’s time to lay down and rest. Remember, we’re going to watch the clouds float by and find pretty shapes while we rest.”

“Not nap time, huh Mommy?” Benji chimed as he rubbed his nose. It was always the first part of him to show that he was tired. Rubbing his nose meant that the sand man would soon be visiting.

“No, Son-Shine, not nap time. Today, it’s just rest time.”

“Mommy sing the “Sunshine” song,” Ben begged.

“Let’s all sing it,” Phillip requested as he began to lead them in the song. Even at his early age, music mattered. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

They scrambled to find their perfect spot to look for cloud formations. Phillip and Benji snuggled in close to Mom, and Nate half lay, half sat at their feet. Soon a soft snoring could be heard coming from Benji, but the watching continued. So far they’d seen an elephant/walrus, Pinnochio, a T-Rex, and a turtle.

“Mommy, why do things hide in the clouds?” the ever so logical Phillip asked.

“I know,” Nathan confidently stated as he launched into a perfectly good, kindergarten explanation of wind currents, humidity, and cloud formations.

Disgusted, Phillip said, “I know all that. I want to know why there are things in the sky that we can see. How come, Mommy?”

“Well, I guess it’s a combination of science – what Nathan said and our imaginations. All of those big poofy clouds get blown around, way up there in the atmosphere and we get to lay here and use the imaginations that God gave us to find the unexpected things – things like walruses and turtles. Maybe God hides them there to see if we are truly paying attention. What do you think?”

Being the oldest, Nathan thought for a moment, “You know Mom, I think maybe your right.”

“Oh,” Phillip replied in disappointment, “I thought God just put them there to give us a surprise and make our days happier.”

“You know, bud, I think I like your explanation better than mine. There are times when God does put things in our lives just to remind us of Him and to make our days better. Maybe cloud animals are some of those things.”

His shy smile peaking out, Phillip reached for Mom’s hand, pointed to the sky and exclaimed, “Look! A penguin!”