Proof I've Been Reading Too Many Children's Books

As I breathe in the dusty wet air, beautiful rain falls, sounding like gems and trinkets bouncing off the porch roof. I stand with a little girl wrapped beneath my arms, her excitement echoing the spontaneous lighting that streaks the sky, followed by the courageous thunder. Surely God can be beautiful, powerful, and frightening.

Once upon a time there was a little brown cow named Humphry. He was a nice cow and lived in a little yellow barn. Yes, a yellow barn. As the old lady cows passed they whispered among themselves, and if you listened closely you could overhear words like “banana” and “mustard.” The young cows sniggered as they trotted past, for no upstanding cow would be seen in a yellow barn. But as the other cows traipsed back to their big red barns, Humphry just smiled as he sat in the door of his yellow home. For you see, Humphry was proud of the bold yellow paint that adorned his barn. Why, you ask me? Well let me tell you the story of that yellow paint. Once upon a time there was a young girl named Lydia. With her pale green eyes and straight black hair, many would call her beautiful when she grew older. Her favorite thing of all were her animals. She dispersed her love equally among her many sheep, goats, horses, and pigs, but her favorite animal of all was her cow, Humphry. She and Humphry loved to lay in the soft green grass under the large weeping willow that grew in the back of the farm. They would take walks together through the warm summer breezes, but in winter Humphry had to stay with the rest of the animals in the big noisy barn. One day, Lydia said to Humphry, “This autumn, I will build you a barn to keep you warm. A big red barn. That will suit you nicely.” All throughout the summer, Humphry's excitement grew as he watched the walls of the barn be built up. At the end of the summer, Lydia and Humphry went to the town parade. They laughed as the clowns and scooters and floats passed them noisily by. But when the fire truck's loud siren blared its way past, Humphry and Lydia looked at each other knowingly. The poor old fire truck was in dire need of a new coat of paint, and they knew they must give their precious red paint to the fire department. The next day they ventured down to the fire station, Lydia lugging paint cans and Humphry carrying paint cans on his yoke. The firefighters were delighted with the gift of paint and thanked them over and over. As Lydia and Humphry trudged slowly home, they could still hear the thank yous of the firefighters over their shoulders. Humphry spent the winter in his new barn, thankful for the warm shelter but still a little sad that it was not the promised shade of red. One day the following spring, just as the sweet peas were beginning to bloom around his front door, Humphry was awoken by a ruckus of banging and clanging all around his barn. He peered out to see a great group of townspeople painting his barn a lovely shade of yellow! The whole town had heard what Humphry and Lydia had done and decided to help them paint Humphry's barn. So they all searched their garages and storehouses for leftover paint. They met and scraped all their paint cans into one large basin and the mixture of the many colors, leftover from all assortments of projects, from Mr. and Mrs. Wallier's purple kitchen cabinets to Mrs. Gurner's pink and blue striped rocking chair. And as all the colors mixed, they formed the yellow paint that now was being applied to Humphry's barn. So you see, as Humphry sits in the doorway of his barn, watching the other cows go by, he knows that his barn is not only coated with sunshine yellow paint, but with the love of all the townspeople.
The End.