Our Wopes

I have spent some years observing the family I acquired with my marriage to Husband seven and a half years ago. In watching and listening I have picked up on bits and pieces of their history as they tell stories or refer to things I wasn't there to experience. It feels a bit like when I came to the U.S. at the age of 18 and had to catch up on the movies I'd never seen and the books I'd never read, so that I could understand references in the culture.

So one day someone mentioned Stepson's wope.

"Wope?" I asked.

Stepson had treasured a couple of possessions when he was a little tot, I was told. One was a stuffed tiger he called "Too," and the other was his rope, which he referred to as his "wope."

"Rope?" I was puzzled.

"Yeah, his rope." Apparently his dad had bought a 3-foot rope, a fairly thick one, and Stepson treasured that rope and carried it around. It wasn't used to tie anything, and he didn't wear that Wope in any special way or drag it on the floor like a blankey. There was nothing special about it or its use, but his Wope was special to him.

I was thinking about it this morning. Could it be that I treasure some things that aren't really that valuable? I imagine God seeing me as His little girl with her precious "wopes," and benevolently watching me tend those Wopes until my eyes eventually open to what is really precious and deserves my affections and attentions in His kingdom.