Dagwood Bumstead

At 3:30 A.M. my dog decided she needed to go outside.  Nice.  When this happens she rarely goes out and comes back quickly but takes the opportunity to absorb every night smell possible.  So I sit and wait.   This time my mind remembered Dagwood Bumstead.   I remembered when I was a little boy Dagwood would get up in the middle of the night and make one his famous sandwiches.  The thought crossed my mind, “Should I?”  Instead I remembered a can of freshly made peanut butter cookies.  I could get that in the dim light of all the kitchen’s LEDs.  But I also wanted a glass of milk to go with the cookie.  There was the problem.  If I opened the refrigerator door I would be totally awakened.  I was moving in a semi-daze.  The light in the fridge would seem like the sun.

Have you ever tried to scrunch your eyes really tightly so as to totally block out all light?   I scrunched as I opened the fridge and reached for the milk.  It didn’t work.  The light blasted its way through my lids. Ouch.  It hurt.  Just then the dog came back.  Next time I will make sure she is well walked before I go to bed.

It’s the light thing I want to mention.  God is light.  Try as hard as we might we cannot totally blind ourselves to His presence.  We can scrunch our brains so as to not recognize His reality.  But He sneaks up on us in the beauty of a flower or the complexity of our eyes as we look at the wonder of our children.  He is there.  We cannot hide.  Remember Jonah?!

Written by Roger Bothwell on October 3, 2008.

Photo by Daiga Ellaby.

Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA