Dolls and Radios

There are often things right in front of your face for your entire childhood, and then as you mature it is as if the Lord opens your eyes one morning and everything is clear. Everything that you once saw one way, is now another. The feelings you felt as a child are as strong as ever, but now you read something different from a certain object or place or person. I have recently been experiencing this, and I’m finding that it brings such an amazing amount of joy to life. Joy that you didn’t know existed. You never saw it before, but now that it’s here, you want to explore and find more of it. You want to stay on this journey of enlightenment, for it deepens your relationships and understandings. The Lord is funny. He delights in laughter and happiness, joy and excitement. He places little tid-bits throughout life, and then 15 years down the road you open your eyes and think, “Whoa! Look at that!” and He laughs that it took us 15 years to see it. He was laughing in Paradise today, because my eyes just opened and I said “Whoa! Look at that!”

I spent several hours this weekend in my grandparent’s home (my childhood home-away-from-home). I was on a journey to document this wondrous place. Full of memories and antiques, familiar smells and old stories, and lots of beautiful, dainty things. Family photos adorn every room, and soft comforters hug every bed. Matching curtains and fancy china, chandeliers and handmade pillows. It holds the same sweet smell that it did when I was a child, and I get the same feeling I used to every time I enter. One of those that gives you goose bumps on your heart. Unconditional love, cozy warmth, wisdom, and God’s grace all rolled in to one.

My grandma collects dolls and my grandpa collects radios. Now, I’ve been around these things in their home for 23 years. They have a room just for these things (which I call the doll room). It was my favorite room as a child, and it still is now. After I was finished shooting (563 photos in all) in their home, I sat down to start editing some of the photos for a project. I clicked on the first photo, the Lord laughed, and my eyes were open. 23 years. 23 years I’ve looked at this room and never seen what I saw today. I saw this: grandma is a doll, and grandpa is a radio (metaphorically speaking of course). They collect these things, but in the blueprints the Lord had it all planned out. It is who they are. I’ll explain it like this:

Grandma is a doll. Dolls are beautiful, inside and out. When a child goes to bed, they put their arm around their doll and feel safe. The doll comforts them. It is a sense of home, and a sense of security. You see little girls carrying around dolls in grocery stores and post offices. They love that doll and would die if anyone tried to take it away from them. It's a part of their daily thoughts. Dolls are a part of who you are when you’re a child. I have a certain doll that means a great deal to me, and I can honestly say that I still get the warm fuzzies when I hug that doll. The same warm fuzzies I get when Grandma hugs me. All those nights that I feared a monster might be under my bed, I clinched my little arms around that doll and fell right to sleep. Grandma is all of these things to me. She is my safe place. I feel comfort and security. I feel home. She is beauty and courage, she is a woman of God.

Grandpa is a radio. A reliable, grounded, informative place to run when the world is throwing a million questions at you. Radios provide you with dire information. (I’m speaking in terms of their lifetime, not so much ours now- thanks to televisions and the internet sadly taking over the world). Sitting in the bottom of a soggy cellar at age 5 with my family and grandparents, we clutched onto that battery powered radio to tell us when the 3 tornadoes that night would be passing over the top of our cellar, and we could safely emerge back into life. Radios announce news about wars and presidents, weather and sports. We learn about life by listening to radios. There are radios (not ones made today) that last a lifetime, trusty antique ones. You turn that little round knob, and voices come aloud telling you the evening’s news. Preachers reach the world over the radio. The Lord’s Message has been spread to millions of souls via radio waves. We hear from soldiers overseas, and of the entire world's news. All of this from a little box sitting atop your dresser drawers in your bedroom. I get all of these things from Grandpa. He is my radio. Full of scriptures and books. Stories that teach you lessons and stories that make you laugh. Experiences of work, parenting, preaching, and loving. Teaching you about life and how to live like the Lord. Answering life’s toughest questions, and always cracking a joke at the end. He is informative, funny, honest, and a true teacher. If I have a question, I know that I can ask him and he will have a story or scripture to answer it. A reliable source, a man of God.

 
These things the Lord opened my eyes to today. Yes, it may sound crazy that I think my grandma is a doll and my grandpa is a radio, but I believe that is just a little bit of the Lord's sense of humor peeking its way into our lives. There is a room in their home full of things that carry their own characteristics and qualities. I guess I better take into account what I start collecting and what MY grandchildren will read into it, huh? Haha! ....what will antique camera's and books say about me?
 
 
"Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first time or last time."
-Betty Smith
 
 
All Our Love,
JenEric