Finding Joy in a Mashed Banana

I have a very independent little girl.  Lyndsey will be 2 in January and she loves to do everything by herself!  The other day she insisted on having her favorite snack in the car – a banana.  I am personally not a fan of bananas.  But Lyndsey loves them and calls them mananas as she combines the words “my” and “banana”.  She can say banana but often just runs the words together and asks for "my banana" or a "manana".  Any way – she often eats bananas in the car and I didn’t really think anything of it.  Well this particular morning she wanted to have her banana on the way to school.  We have a bit of a drive to preschool and normally Lyndsey is all talk.  But this particular morning she was oddly quiet.  I kept asking her if everything was OK.  She kept saying “fine mommy”.   When we got to school I quickly learned everything was not fine!   

As I opened her door I saw that she was covered in banana – mashed, mushed, nasty banana.  It was all over her outfit, her car seat, and my back seat.  I almost retched.  I actually had to turn around for a moment and compose myself.  Lyndsey, however, was sitting perfectly still with her hands out in front of her, holding up a small piece of banana that had somehow survived the massacre.  As I turned back around she looked right at me and said, “icky, mommy”.  Yes Lyndsey, the situation had become icky. 

Like any mom, I swallowed the gag from my throat and told her that everything was going to be OK.  I quickly grabbed a ton of baby wipes (there is a special place in my heart for the person who invented baby wipes, btw) and began cleaning up my frozen toddler.  As I wiped down the car seat, the back seat, Lyndsey’s arms, and her cloths she suddenly noticed that she still had a piece of banana in her hand and quickly popped it in her mouth.  She gave me the biggest toddler smile and said “yum!”    As we walked into school, Lyndsey’s shorts were a bit wet from being wiped down and she walked almost like a cowboy.  She proceeded to tell everyone we passed that it was “icky”.  I dropped her off with her teacher and she ran over to tell the nice lady that her shorts were icky.  I explained the situation and left for work.  As I got back to my car, I could smell the banana but I was comforted that at least it was cleaned up and the “crises” was over.

As I went into my quiet time with the Lord that day I thanked Him for my little girl and reminisced on the story from the morning.  I actually jokingly thought “I bet you got your laugh this morning, huh God?”  But then as I moved into my bible study I began to see so many parallels in my life with Lyndsey and her banana. 

I find myself trying to be so independent and get everything done on my own.  It is very hard for me to ask for help.  Asking for help from God seems to be the furthest thing from my mind sometimes.  What is worse is then when anyone asks, is everything ok, I answer with a quick “we’re fine”.  When God asks, I tell Him, and myself, that I’m fine.  Why is asking for and receiving help so hard?  I have no idea.  But it is a challenge I find myself constantly working on. 

Then I thought about how Lyndsey went on to tell everyone how “icky” the situation had gotten.  We do this all the time too.  We focus on the icky around us.  We tell people about how we have made it through something horrific or we look and only see the mess.  Each situation is detailed in the worse possible light.  We often forget to mention that a HAZMAT team of baby wipes swooped in and cleared away the icky and now we are walking a way with wet but clean shorts instead of banana-filled ones.  On top of that, we often forget to explain that we made the icky situation to begin with!  Somehow, the positive light and the root of the problem get left out of our complaining. 

As I sat and reflected I took an extra opportunity think about and to thank God for always swooping in with his heavenly baby wipes and for cleaning up all my messes – all my icky as I try and be over-independent.  As I sat, already in total awe of God and how he can clean up all the icky I can get myself into, my heart was reminded of one more piece.

Lyndsey found the joy.  In all of the mess and mashed up banana, she found the one piece that was still whole and she enjoyed it.  That’s the piece of the story many of us need to remember –find the joy!  Life is icky and we do try to be over-independent and God has to swoop in and clean us up but we are called to be joyful; in all things rejoice in the Lord (Philippians 4:4 says it two times in a row so you know it’s important!)  Lyndsey rejoiced that a piece of banana had survived.  I need to be better at that; in all things, at all times – rejoicing in the Lord.  I need to be better at looking around at the mess and the ick and being thankful I have a heavenly creator who is ready to help clean me up.  I need to be better at finding the joy in it all.