Recently my stellar middle grandson, Jacob, turned five. He had told me on the phone that he wanted a remote control spider for his birthday. Later he told his Mom he wanted a robot dog. After visiting four stores looking for a robot dog and having no luck, I did happen on a really big, hairy, ugly and tacky-looking remote control tarantula. “Hmmm, what sort of thing is this for a retired teacher to give a kid?” I thought to myself. Perhaps it would be acceptable if I added a nice book on tarantulas to, you know, legitimize giving such a tawdry thing to a kid. Maybe he’ll learn tons of spider facts and be the star of his class when it comes to science time.

I was reading Matthew 23 this morning and Jesus was berating the scribes and Pharisees for being the kind of people who want to make themselves look good by following rules and adding unnecessary tasks to everyday life. My husband says there isn’t a rule written that I don’t love. That’s not true, but I will admit that I have a streak in me that wants to go “by the book”, rather than follow my heart.

Rest easy, I threw caution to the wind and sent that hairy spider sans matching science book. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in action.