ah... finally

Monday at lunch I was doing something odd. It involved biting a piece of cheese so it would look like various U.S. States.

My four-year joyfully soaked it in without question, while my seven-year old processed it with a half-cocked eyebrow.

The four-year old laughed, but the seven-year old spoke.

"You're weird."

Ah... finally.

Finally he knows.

I'm often doing things like this to make my kids laugh. Something in the genre of a silly voice or crazy impression... only this time it involved a dairy product.

My wife cheered a bit inside, and even a little spilled out of her. That which she has known all along he has just now realized by another in our household. It's only a matter of time for the youngest... and then the dog.

The things I do to bring fun into my household are weird. Yes, definitely, definitely weird... because there is so much unbridled laughter to be found in such things. Which is why I do them, even though they are weird.

Meanwhile, my oldest son is developing a worldview of his own. He compares that which he knows to be "normal" and realizes that his dad is doing something many people don't do. The only way to sum it all up is to state that I am weird, which I am indeed.

That is a skill I hope he maintains.

Only I hope his version of "normal" isn't merely that which is common in our world, because that which is common in our world is what is "weird."

What is "normal" is the reality of God.

• It's what we fail to envision with our eyes and yet clearly see.
• It's what we cannot hear and yet yearn to sing along with.
• It's what we cannot touch and yet crave to be hugged with.
• It's what we cannot smell and yet long to know the aroma of.
• It's what we cannot taste and yet salivate to chew on.

Which is why when someone does something "normal" in an abnormal world the newspapers write about it and we feel good, or ABC makes a TV show about it and we all watch it with Kleenex close by, or why when we hear about a God who doesn't just accept the broken world but enters it in order to fix it we think it to be absolutely captivating.

Our culture doesn't get it and labels it weird. But why wouldn't a Bizarro world think the true normal to be backward? Such forward "non-weird weirdness" is refreshment to our otherwise dry lives.

It causes our souls to cry out, "Ah... finally."

The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:17)

I'd love to talk more about this, only it's getting late and I have to work on my Morgan Freeman impersonation. That way when I call the video store tomorrow and slowly ask in a crackly, narrator like voice if they stock "The Bucket List" or "Shawshank Redemptive," the guys on the other end can wonder a bit... "Is this...? Nah can't be. Probably some guy who is just weird."

Which, of course, I am.

Are you?

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Oh, by the way, say hello to Super Leg and Bat Leg.