From Construction Paper to iPhone

Laura drew and gave me this picture on October 14, 1992 when she was eight and I was thirty-seven. She gathered the leaves from the yard at our first house on Brandywood Court, where she and David both grew up. We moved from there when Laura was ten and David was thirteen. Laura and David both saw me studying the Bible often, as speaking engagements started about that time. I studied in bed early in the mornings. (By early I mean before 11:00) kept a Bible in my car and in my purse, and Bible verses in practically every room, either on the wall or a daily flip-calendar. They knew what the Bible meant to me and saw me studying it every day. Whereas David’s love language is quality time (wherever Phil was David was – at the lake, in the woods, in the shop, at a game, etc.)  -- (They still have that relationship to this day; David is now that way with his own children), Laura’s love language is the “giving and receiving of gifts.” So when she gave me this picture she was acknowledging, “I see you. I love you. I’ve noticed you studying and seen what’s important to you. Here’s my gift.”

On Thursday night, February 16, 2012 Phil and I were watching TV and, with the look she always has whenever she wants something, Laura stood quietly behind the couch wanting my attention. “Mom I have something I want to show you back in my bedroom. Do you mind coming to see it?” “No, honey, I don’t.”  So off the couch and down the hallway I went.

“Look mom,” she said with iPhone in hand, as we both sat down on the bed. You can read the Bible either book-by-book, or some other plan, or you can just pick out a topic, like “hope,” and read passages on it; I chose “hope” to read for three days in a row. “Look!” she said as she tapped on “hope” making the first passage pop up. Don’t remember it. Don’t remember number two either. But, I’ll never forget number three.

Isaiah 40:8 – “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of God stands forever.”

Instantly I was taken aback to October 14, 1992 when she, an eight year old little girl, handed me a piece of construction paper with this verse written on it -- a verse reflecting what she knew I loved, a tree bearing actual fall leaves, a bird, a cloud and the sun.

TO: Mom

FROM:

Laura
Ellen
Kimbel.

Isaiah 40:8

The grass
withers and
the flowers
fall, But the
Word of God
Stands for-ever.

I framed what Laura drew for me twenty years ago, citing the date on the back, and have had it somewhere in our house, wherever we’ve moved, ever since. When I saw it this time on the most modern of modern technology, it seemed even though we’ve come so far, time stood still.

Time does not diminish the power of the word of God and doesn’t change its meaning. What was true then is true today. We all need to be reminded over and over. “The grass withers and the flowers falls, but the word of God stands forever.” -- whether written on papyrus, construction paper or iPhone.