Hodge Podge.

Thursdays are especially unpredictable in this household.

Unpredictable Brian: Before going to work yesterday, he labored – shirtless – outside, picking and digging and planting.  We now have three blueberry bushes.  Isn’t that adorable?

Unpredictable Bennett: After Mommy Square Piece roasted some onions, green peppers and garlic, she slipped some roasted and pureed beets and ground bison into the spaghetti sauce.  Beets?  Bison?  The babe ate it like a champ.  Gotta remember to put that on the baby calendar…

Unpredictable me: Bennett’s been getting stronger at standing, squatting, crawling and taking a careful step here and there.  Every now and then, however, he gets wobbily and goes down.  Unfortunately, he collided with the rocking snail just enough to make the tiniest scrape under his bottom lip.  You’d have thought that the sky was falling.  There’s a certain amount of silence that passes while your baby is mustering up an incredible wail.  Yikes.  Being that I was right there, I swiftly swooped him up and began the comforting and the kissing and the consoling.  But what really got to me was seeing not just the expression of “ouch” in his face, but also seeing the surprise in his tear-filled eyes.  There’s something about that innocence that just slays me.  Me?  I can typically anticipate pain, bracing myself to grit and bear it, face determined and set like stone.  But Bennett?  Sometimes I forget just how much e.v.e.r.y l.i.t.t.l.e. t.h.i.n.g is a wonder and a surprise, even the unpleasant stuff.

But seeing that face, seeing that surprise and recognition of pain in his wide, startled eyes, it just made me wonder what it must have been like for God the Father to see his Son crucified.  And what was that like for Mary, you know, to see His eyes as they realized new realms of pain?  I just cannot even fathom that.  It’s been a while since something has hit so vividly for me.  What love!  What selfless love that we might be adopted into His family.