Double Dutch

During this time, our youngest daughter Hillary was to participate in Jump Rope for Heart. This was a program at her school that was both for fun and to raise money to prevent heart disease.

Hillary would need a jump rope. I heard her ask several times, "Hey, Daddy, will you get me a jump rope?" I can't recall hearing a response to those questions. I did imagine Hillary taking her Daddy down the toy isle to pick out a jump rope and roping him into buying her some candy at the same time.

One afternoon as I walked through the kitchen, I caught a glimpse of my husband out back sitting on the railroad tie wall whittling something. His glasses had slid down to the end of his nose and sweat was running down his face. I stopped and watched him for a moment. Next to him on the railroad tie wall were three lengths of rope each cut to about 6 feet long. Laid out next to the rope were four small blocks of wood. I kept watching. In his hands were two wooden handles.

I wondered what he was going to do next, so I kept watching. He drilled a hole in the end of each handle. Then he chose a length of rope. I fought back tears as I realized what he was doing. He put the end of each piece of rope into each end of the wooden handles he had carved. He was answering Hillary's request to get her a jump rope. But this was not just any jump rope. This was a custom made, Daddy quality jump rope!

While I was watching him assemble the jump rope, the verse fromMatthew 7:11in the Bible came to mind: "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"

I finally went outside to see this special project. My husband had made not one but three custom-made jump ropes, one for each of our daughters. By now three little girls were painting the handles of their jump rope in their favorite color. Hillary had picked yellow, Hennie's was pink and Hannah's was purple. After the first coat of paint had dried, painted flowers were added, each different, on the three sets of jump rope handles.I thought again about how we ask our Heavenly Father for something. I think it is true that when we do get it from our Heavenly Father, it will always be something far better than we could have ever imagined. It will be something unique and custom made with "Daddy" (Heavenly Father) quality!

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Contributed by Susan Lemckert
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