Me: I think you got to get your ducks in a row.

Prodigal: I am trying, but a lot of toys are here.

This is from Nan Closson

Merle was always coming up with ways to entertain our grandsons when they visited town. This time he put his hands on quite a contraption: a mechanical dog. He loaded the batteries, and we tested it before the boys arrived. The dog walked and barked and moved its head. Merle pressed a button to make its tail spin like a propeller. You couldn’t help but laugh.

The boys played with the dog every single day, but nobody could get that tail to way the way Merle could. I caught him fooling with the dog even after the boys had gone back home. “Merle!” I said. “You’re a grown man!” Merle’s hearty laugh made me think he’d live forever. But that wasn’t to be. His health started to fail, and he died on an afternoon in March.

All of us struggled in the days after. One night I roamed the house, utterly joyless. Lord, will I ever laugh again? Suddenly I heard a whirring noise in the bedroom. I crept down the hall to the closet. Holding my breath, I opened the door.

Merle’s little dog was spinning its tail a mile a minute. I burst out laughing. Oh, Merle, I thought. Ever the entertainer. I picked up the control box. The batteries weren’t even inserted.

O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. Psalm 117:1 (KJV)

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org