Broken Lamps = Love’s true expression

When Mariah and I got married we both were flying by the seat of our pants.  Neither of us had anything of value, and working minimal wage jobs didn’t leave much room for material improvement.  The few “nice” things we did have were treasured with extreme sensitivity.  This is where the lamps come in.  Mariah had brought these two white lamps into the marriage that were the remnants of her freshman apartment at University of New Mexico.  They were cool, stylish, and a little too hip for me, I cared less about light, I just wanted a TV.  Nevertheless, I cared for the lamps as if they were a long lost family heirloom, carefully taking them across the country to Michigan, making sure they survived unhurt.  Throughout our marriage I have painstakingly protected the precious lamps from the violence of Downriver Detroit, the destructive power of youth group meetings, and another move across country back to Texas.  Only once did I let my guard down, which allowed the anointed one (our first born Clay) a small opportunity to bump into the table it stood on and knock it into a few dozen pieces that ended in a special can at the curb with “Taps” being performed on trash day.

The last remaining lamp survived 6 more years until today.  I had it in the garage, where all our other family heirlooms rest while we wait to move into permanent dwellings, and there it had sat as hip and stylish as the day Mariah brought it into the marriage 15 years ago.  15 minutes ago my daughter Juliane begged me outside to see something her and her sister, Hannah, had written for us.  Hoping it wasn’t written in spray paint, I was a little puzzled by the white broken pieces of plaster that the girls described as “chalk”.  Well, if you hadn’t guessed it by now you know in your heart the “chalk” was Mariah’s precious lamp!

With the chalk they wrote “Dear Mom and Dad, You are our best freinds (friends) We love you we conet (connect) like a puzzle, you are awsome! Love Juliane and Hannah

Something is telling me they wrote their expression of love after they broke the lamp on accident.  I’m betting good money that their mother won’t be as sentimental when she discovers their source of chalk!  It just makes me sit here and smile, thinking that that stupid lamp survived moving from New Mexico to Texas to Michigan to Texas again, but couldn’t survive the most destructive force in nature, little girls!!

I’d be more upset, but at least I don’t have to worry about breaking it myself anymore.  I’m just wondering when I tell Mariah …?!