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Wisdom: The Orange Lollypop.
When Adam and Eve traded wisdom with the knowledge of good and evil and ate the forbidden fruit, they realized they were naked. They hid themselves from each other; they hid from God. Then they blamed each other, “It was the snake;” “it was the woman.” They no longer had wonderful relationships, and they lost intimacy. They were banished from the garden. Then, many years later, a guy wrote a book called The Book of Wisdom. In it he said, we can get it back, we can get back what we lost. We can regain wisdom and win back our strong relationship with God and others.
When I was six years old, I was in the emergency room with my mother. The doctor gave me stitches. When he was done, my mother reached into her pocketbook and gave me an orange lollypop. I will never forget that lollypop because I went from horrible pain to delicious happiness.
Life can be hard and full of thorns and stitches. Wisdom is the lollypop.
We had a variety show when I was in sixth grade. My teacher asked me if I would do a song and dance with three of the special education students. When I saw they had Down Syndrome, I knew that my friends and classmates were going to tease me because sixth graders are cruel. Our teacher suggested singing “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.” I noticed three things at our first practice. They didn’t know how to sing, they didn’t know how to dance, but they knew how to be happy. They were thrilled to be a part of the show; they were happy to have a new friend and that they could express themselves on stage by singing and dancing. Their energy and fun spirit won me over. We met every Friday afternoon for the next two months to practice our routine.
The day finally arrived; the curtains opened, and we walked out single file, waving our top hats and holding our umbrellas. We did the “flipper flapper” with our feet. We did the “hide behind the umbrellas trick.” We did the umbrella “pirouette,” and we did the “stacking head” trick behind the curtain. We sang the last note in four-part harmony for the grand finale and slid across the stage as they closed the curtains. We got up on our feet, locked arms, and bowed to the audience. When we straightened up, I could not believe what I saw. Everyone was on their feet. We stood there for maybe two minutes, maybe five. It wasn’t because we were good. In fact, we were awful. It was because we were fun and everyone had a good time.
Life can be hard with stitches and Down Syndrome. But in those moments, God always offers us wisdom. If we reach for the orange lollypop, we will always be happy.
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