One of the children’s books we used to read to the kids was Robert Munsch’s book, “Something Good.” The book is about a dad who takes his kids Tyya, Andrew, and Julie grocery shopping. The kids are typical kids wanting to buy candy, cookies, ice cream, etc, in other words, ‘something good’ and dad is all about buying important stuff like vegetables, milk, etc. The kids would load up a cart with ‘junk’ and dad would tell them to ‘put it all back!’ This scene is repeated many, many times in various ways.

Somehow the youngest ends up on a shelf with life like dolls and the store clerk who is pricing the items, doesn’t notice and Tyya ends up with a price tag on her head. Meanwhile, dad notices the child is missing, finds her, puts her in the cart, is obviously frustrated with saying the same refrain, ‘put it all back!’ and is done and ready to check out. As the items are rung up, the little girl ends up getting priced into the total. The clerk insists that dad ‘pay’ for his daughter, and dad of course is saying ‘I’m not paying for my own kid.’ Until finally Tyya says, ‘Daddy, aren’t I worth $27.19?’ and so he pays the clerk, and on the way out the kids point out that finally dad bought something good.

As we come into a season where we shop for food and gifts, trying to be responsible and thoughtful and not getting too frustrated, my prayer is that we not get so tightly focused that we miss what we have. I hope we will take time to realize the gifts God has given us and to be aware that each of us has been given ‘something good.

God Bless

Donn