Last week, I ordered a bag of sixty red noses from Amazon. I am not a Prime customer, but they arrived in three business days. They did not look like noses. They were smooshed down together in an airless bag and looked like dehydrated strawberries. When I cut the bag open and dumped the little sponge blobs, they were airless and lifeless.
My first thought was that I got duped. I have ordered lovely noses in the past that arrived ready for DR SING A SONG to do nose transplants for children in the hospital. My next thought was, that I must revive these sadly smashed pieces, and bring them to life.
Hubby held one under the faucet and viola, it puffed up into a perfectly beautiful orb. I proceeded to put all sixty pieces into a bowl and filled it with water. They immediately came alive, but the water turned blood red. Next, I squeezed the water out and put them all on paper towels to dry. The towels were polka dotted with red, so I threw all of them back into the bowl for several more rinses. I even added vinegar to set the color. I feared this would result in smelly noses, so I did another rinse with baking soda and then went back to the drying process.
Before I picked twenty noses to take to my nieces and nephews for a birthday celebration, I patted them with more towels to remove any excess moisture or dye. I did not want to have an adverse effect and turn everyone’s nose a permanent red, so I put one on to make sure it was clean and safe. The rest were packed up and put with all the things we were taking on the car trip to Virginia.
When the festivities were starting, I passed out kazoos and noses. Grandpa said he did not really like clowns. What? All the years we watched Bozo Circus on the air in Chicago! We even dreamed that we would get to go some day and win the grand prize game! Well, I was not going to be pushy on his special birthday. Obviously, he made the mistake of watching a scary clown movie at some point. I have never seen a scary clown, only delightful, playful entertaining clowns; and of course my therapeutic clown friends in the hospital.
Only a couple of us wore our noses bravely while the kazoo band regaled grandpa with several songs. The parents gave me a look of consternation as they knew the music would eventually become unwanted noise. All I heard was joy throughout the day. We must remember the feeling of delight that we had as children so that we can recapture the great love of life that God breathed into us when we were born.
I do not ever want to be a dehydrated red bloody nose like the ones that came in the package. Luckily, it only took water to refresh and renew them to their desired form. We might also need a baptism to release us from our current condition and be refreshed with hope. Take me back to where the music plays and the dance goes on and where we are never feeling so alone.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Psalm 150:4
And have your kazoos ready too.
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