Laughter in the Walls

Laughter in the Walls

Happy Thanksgiving! Since Thanksgiving is a time for family to return home, here is an article that should tug at every parent’s heart strings . . .

Have you ever written a note to your husband, your wife, or to someone else for whom you care’? A busy architect named Bob Berry did. The words he wrote should touch every home that God has blessed with children. Here’s what Berry said,

I pass a lot of houses on my way home – some pretty, some expensive, some inviting – but my heart always skips a beat when I turn down the road and see my house nestled against the hi ll. I guess I’m especially proud of the house and the way it looks because I drew the plans myself. It started out large enough for us – I even had a study – but two teen aged boys now reside there. And it had a guest room – my girls and nine dolls are permanent guests [now]. It had a small room my wife had hoped would be her sewing room – but the two swinging on the Dutch door have claimed this room as theirs. So it really doesn’t matter right now if I’m much of an architect, but it will get larger again – one by one [our children] will go away to work, to college, to service, to their own houses, and then there will be room – a guest room, a study, and a sewing room for just the two of us. But it won’t be empty – every corner, every room, and every nick in the coffee table will be crowded with memories. Memories of picnics, parties, Christmases, bedside vigils, summers, cook outs, fires, winters, going barefoot, leaving for vacations, cats, fish, dogs, conversations, black eyes, ow-ies, graduations, first dates, ball games, arguments, washing dishes, quiet times, family devotions, discussions, bicycles, boat rides, getting home from vacations, meals, rabbits, and a thousand other things that fill the lives of those who raise children. And my wife and I will sit quietly by the fire and listen to the laughter in the walls (Swindoll: Ox Cart 201-202).

In the context of a passage on broken homes, dysfunctional families, and memories that none of us ever want to forget the same God Who gave us our memories so we could have roses in December, The architect of the home said in Matthew 19:14 Do not hinder the little children from coming unto you for of such is the kingdom of heaven. A father himself, David wrote in Psalm 128:1-6 Blessed is the one who holds the Lord in highest esteem for [his] wife shall be a fruitful vine and [his] children like olive plants around the table … and you will see your children’s children and experience peace. Every day of our lives we make memories that can last forever, some good and some we’d rather forget. But, in our homes each and every day, we need to make sure that once our children have left the nest and have children of their own that there will remain some laughter in the walls to remind us just how blessed we are that God gave children parents. Of course, when they do return home – as at Thanksgiving – we rejoice for the glad reunion!