A MARKED DAY

I think the boys have inherited my love of loving things.

If at all possible, all three of us ooh and aah at whatever we can: beautiful scenery, great athletic moves, funny jokes, and new experiences of any kind.  We also tend to exaggerate how wonderful things are.  Jeff does not share this trait with us, taking things more in stride.  I guess it’s good that someone does, but I’m glad it’s not the boys.

Like last week, while standing a top the continental divide in the middle of the rainforest.  The whole way up the trail, Zach kept reminding me, “Mom, mom! This can be part of our map study!”  He was thrilled to be out in the jungle, to have a goal, and to connect it to what we were doing back home.  Lots of oohs and aahs.

And when we finally reached the divide, he stood there with his mouth ajar, saying under his breath over and over, “Oh, this is glorious.”

Ezra ran up and said, “Mom, I marked this day.”

“You did?  What mark did you give it?”

“No, mom, not like that.  I marked it with my other best days in my life.”

Which makes sense.  Because along with hyperbolic assessments, we also really like to rank our top experiences.  So I guess Ezra made up a new category for ranking — those days worthy of marking. 

My parents head back to the states tomorrow, so we spent some time at dinner ranking our favorite experiences of the week.  Here were some of the contenders:

• Watching a dozen monkeys make their way through the trees next to the road.
• Body surfing
• Hiking to the continental divide
• Ziplining through the canopy at Monteverde
• Watching the volcano blow steam out its top from the incredible view in our hotel
• Riding in the front seat and switching the gears while Dad drove our beast of a van

Many other activities that didn’t get any votes would have easily won on a normal week [like a delightful hour spent looking at local art, drinking coffee, and watching birds with colors that didn’t seem to belong on birds].  My dad said his favorite part was spending so much time with the boys. 

Anyhoo, lots of marked days this week.

Speaking of marked days…Our family was praying two nights ago, and Zach prayed that Grandpa would have a great day the next day.  Ezra jumped in with some of his unique theology.

“Zach, don’t you know that God marks the days on a calendar.  And every day he checks on everyone he made.  And he checks to see if they had a great day.”

He didn’t explain further, but the implication seemed to be that if Grandpa had been having a hard time and not having enough great days, then God would notice and take care of it.

So maybe God marks the days too.