Tears For Tiger

There was sadness in the house…for some reason I still get a little melancholy and even shed a tear or two at the end of a family gathering in our house and everyone has left…some of our children were over for an afternoon of prepping for an upcoming wedding and then to enjoy a family dinner for two birthday girls…

They joined us, along with a couple of the grandchildren who were still at our house from the day before which included a sleepover, movies, walks, eating, a tea party, games, reading, laughing, going to church, and a trip to the park to play on the swing set, in the water park, watch a baseball game at a park, and then watch football on the TV with grandpa.  

As I went through the living room to pick up whatever was still left around the house, I noticed Tiger sitting on the couch looking sad and all alone and so far away from his usual resting spot upstairs in the Hockey Room until the next visit from grandchildren.

Tiger, for some reason, had been the chosen stuffed animal of this sleepover adventure at grandpa and grandma’s house. For some reason he was the one chosen out of a thousand other stuffed animals in the house (ok, perhaps I have exaggerated the amount we have) to accompany my granddaughter almost everywhere that she went during her twenty eight hour visit.

He was the one stuffed animal that she asked me if she could take along when the grandchildren went with me for a walk.

He was the one stuffed animal that was the object of a hide-and-seek game where he was the one hiding that others had to find.

He was the one that sat patiently as meals were eaten and teeth were brushed but then was quickly held by my almost six-year old granddaughter.

When I saw him sitting on the couch all alone I felt the suddenness of an almost empty house occupied by only Cathy and me. Yes, we have people over during the week for gatherings such as our weekly Bible Study. But, this was one of the times when it felt like; “How long until the next time our home is filled with a gathering?”

I thought of the times when we were the parents driving our children home from a gathering or overnight at the grandparents. My heart was full then as I would be filled with gratefulness for the time we had of eating and laughter and enjoying conversations with all three generations; four when our children were young and Cathy’s grandmothers were still alive. And yet still a bit melancholy as I wondered when next we would gather again as a family.

I picked up Tiger and gave him a ride upstairs to the Hockey Room and placed him back on the bed which my grandchildren consider to be theirs; along with the other stuffed animals which themselves had been carefully chosen as favorites of my grandchildren.

As I shut off the lights in the house and walked upstairs to my office to write this, I realized how grateful I am that I, after all of these years, am still able to shed a tear for a simple stuffed Tiger because of how it invokes memories from the time that I just spent with people who mean so much to me. 

I am grateful that God has been so faithful to provide food, clothing, and so much more including the ability to ask and receive forgiveness when we don’t understand each other.

I am grateful at this past opportunity to spend time with those I love in the midst of a world that at times seems so cold and spinning more and more out of control.

And so I sit in my office as I write down my thoughts before the day’s end in an attempt to preserve the posterity of a man who is so thankful the Lord who has chosen to love him and bless him so richly.

“Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works
Which You have done;
And Your thoughts toward us
Cannot be recounted to You in order;
If I would declare and speak of them,
They are more than can be numbered.” (Psalm 40:5 NKJV)