To the Nines

Today is 9-09-09. A date I thought we could appreciate given our calendar culture. Anyway, yesterday Cambell brought home a note saying she and her classmates were supposed to dress to the nines today in honor of the 9-9-09 date. This is right up her alley. If dressing to the nines means wearing a flouncy white dress, Easter heels, plenty (read- way too much) costume jewelry and my lip gloss then it's "mission accomplished" for my fancy first grader.

At breakfast, during the great "which dress" debate, I started thinking about how much we have. Life as a middle class American, even in tough economic times, is pretty full of frills.

Laeken told me the other day that she dreamt she crossed the international date line and travelled in time so she could see the day she was born. I imagine that time travellers from the past and international travellers from today would be taken aback by all we have, by how "gussied up" our lives have become.

Tonight our entire family is getting in the game. We are dressing to the nines for dinner and serving our pizza on the china we have but never use - milk in tea cups and the whole "nine" yards. Scott will wear the suit he wore to work this morning. Maybe I'll wear one of the two never-been-worn bridesmaids dresses hanging in my closet. We'll laugh and consider all we have and spend some time thinking about those who have so much less. We'll have some fun with this unusual date and use it as a reminder that all good things come from God.

This morning, as I sat in the van watching the girls go into the school, I had a good laugh seeing Cambell strut down the sidewalk like it was a cat walk. As I drove off, I wondered if God gets a good giggle out of us when he sees how focused we get on all of the stuff that fills our lives and drains our wallets. Silly people.

We can have fun with the bells and whistles and ruffles of life and that's OK. But when it comes right down to it, I think we can all agree, that could be stripped away in an instant and we would still have more than enough. That's what you get when you're lucky enough to recognize that you are living your life in the arms of a loving God. A life that is something truly beautiful, even without the frills.