The Visitor

It was so hot, the kind of hot that makes you a little sleepy. Then I heard, "Pssst, whisper, whisper, whisper. Tell Mom." Then, a few seconds went by, and the whisperer sounded a little more urgent. "WHISPER, WHISPER, Whisper. TELL MOM." Well, now my interest was piqued. So I listened as the son next to me leaned over and whispered, "Mom, Eli has a gecko." I knew Eli had had one earlier, so I thought, as there were other sounds going on around me, that I had misheard something and he meant HAD a gecko. So I said, "What did you say?" And he said it again, with his brother, Whisperer Number 1, now leaning over to look at me with wide, desperate eyes.

Well, the problem was not that he had a gecko, it was the location--we were sitting in church this morning. I had been so proud to see how excited little Elijah was to be in church this day. He came in with such a grin on his face. And he was sitting so still, just as straight as an arrow as if he was soaking up everything going on in church this morning.

I leaned up, tapped him on the shoulder (our family was split up on two different benches), and whispered in his ear, "Eli, do you have a gecko?" He turned around and nodded enthusiastically and then gave me a big, proud smile. I really hated to ruin his time, I did. But, I also knew that as lively as our church service already is, and as much as we stick out, it really wouldn't do for a gecko that Elijah had brought in to get loose on someone. So I said, "Eli, could you please take him outside and let him go?"

Well, his little shoulders slumped, but with an audible sigh, he obeyed, with one parting glare, of course, at his ratting big brothers.

Since I have had boys, one of my all time favorite books is Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain. One chapter that I have read over and over again, and laughed til I had tears running down my cheeks is the one where Tom is in church, and has brought in a pinchbug to play with, and it's so hot and there's a sleeping dog inside the church. If you haven't read it, please do--it's a phenomenal representation of the way that boys think, at least mine. The great news in our family, especially for our easily embarrassed teenagers, is that the gecko didn't get loose when Elijah took the matter of his Sunday morning entertainment into his own hands. Literally. : )