The Johnson family was po'.
That was how Jim Johnson pronounced it...po'...like the word only had three letters.
Then he would chuckle and explain, "Can't even afford the "r' in
poor."
He had one of those deep belly laughs, it rocked the frame of their rickety little house
whenever it came rolling up from the deep depths of Big Jim's body. They
always called him Big Jim. Standing well over six feet tall and big enough to shade
you from the sun if he stood in the right direction, the name came naturally.
As imposing a figure as he was, Becky knew just how to push his buttons.
"Jimmy, come here," she would coo. And Big Jim just did not seem
that big any more.
Big Jim had met Becky in elementary school. The two were instantly attracted to one
another. if you asked either of them how long they had been together, they had
a special answer they would give.
Jim used to say, "It's been Becky and me since I learned my A, B, Cs."
The only thing that changed in Becky's answer was the name.
Becky and Jim shared a lot in their lives. Money was just not one of those things.
Both came from humble backgrounds and after their marriage, things did not change
much.
What they lacked in possessions they made up for in love. Everybody in town thought
there could not be a more happy and in love couple than Becky and Big Jim.
The couple became even happier with the arrival of Wendy Jean Johnson. Six
pounds, seven ounces of smile and contentment. She looked like she would fit
entirely into that over-sized mitt Big Jim called a hand. Even as a baby, Wendy
would be constantly smiling.
Big Jim, Becky and now little Wendy. A happier family you never could find.
They did not have much but at night, they would pray and thank God for all He had
given them. They looked at one another as they prayed this prayer, for family was
the most thing of value that they had.
Becky kept a clean house. She always figured even if you don't have much, doesn't
mean it can't be clean. And Big Jim, he worked every day of his life. Just
seemed his job paid him enough to get by but not quite enough to get ahead.
He had been saving up to get Becky something special for their upcoming anniversary.
A quarter here, fifteen cents there. He just put it away little by little.
Finally their anniversary arrived. Big Jim came walking in the door from work that
night carrying a wrapped package under his bulky arm.
He walked over to Becky, bent down deep to kiss the only love of his life. And then
in a dainty fashion, that almost made Becky laugh at her big bear of a husband, he
presented her with the rough-wrapped package.
Becky pulled at the paper, eager to see what Big Jim had brought her,
And when she opened it, her eye's grew wide. She held the package's contents up in
front of her, curtains for her kitchen window. She would be able to take down
the newspaper that they had used for privacy and replace it with these bright white
curtains with little yellow daisies on them.
Becky thought these curtains were the prettiest things she had ever seen. She jumped
up into Big Jim's arms, and almost was lost to sight in the midst of this big hug.
"I can't wait to put these up," Beck said. She and Big Jim had lived
with pass-me-downs, or make-dos and finally, they had something new of their own. It
was not much, but again, it was something to put on the top of their prayer list.
They thanked God for blessing them one more time.
Wendy was in first grade by now, and when she woke up on the morning, she did not even
realize there had been any excitement in the house. She had her own excitement to
share at the breakfast table.
"Mommy, Daddy, they are having a fashion show at school. All of the kids are
going to be in it. Can I be in the fashion show too? Can I? Can I?"
Wendy never did anything without a extra measure of enthusiasm. She did not talk,
she bubbled. She did not walk she skipped.
God gave Becky and Big Jim a treasure when Wendy was born. As much as they loved
each other, Big Jim and Becky turned up the love a notch for Wendy.
They wished there was even more they could do for her to show their love.
They just smiled as they looked at her sitting at the breakfast table. Two soft
puffs of hair were on each side of her neatly combed and parted head.
Big Jim called those puffs, "my personal check brushes," as he would pull Wendy
up to him and nuzzle her with such love and affection.
Everybody said Wendy was a perfect blend of Becky and Big Jim, She had her
mother's mocha complexion, arching eyebrows, and thick black hair. And Big Jim's
even personality. Fortunately she did not have his size.
"What do you have to do to be in the fashion show," Becky asked
Wendy. "You just have to bring in a new outfit to model. The winner will
get a prize," Wendy explained.
Becky and Big Jim looked at one another with the voiceless communication only happily
married couples seem to be able to accomplish. They knew they could not afford to
get Wendy a new outfit just for a fashion show.
Wendy always went out the door clean and neat. But sometimes the dress had been
previously test-driven by an older cousin. Other times it may have been the donation
of a friend from church whose daughter had out grown it.
In the Johnson house, the only thing new, usually was New Year.
It seemed Wendy sensed her parents' concerns. She knew her family was not rich.
Some of her friends had things Wendy wished she had. But she knew too that
she had some things that her friends never could have...happy and loving parents called
Becky and Big Jim.
But it still seemed her walk had a little less skip in it that day as she went to school
and the bubble in her voice, just a little less effervescent.
Big Jim went off to work a little brooding that day. A dark cloud seemed to loom over
his countenance. His large brow furled. He just wished he could do something
so Wendy could be in the fashion show.
Becky went about her household chores with the same thought in mind and the same troubled
look on her face..
After she had finished a couple of loads of wash, and started the night's supper,
Becky went to her sewing corner. It was this skill that kept her family in
clothes. Becky could mend and fix just about anything
Becky became a whirlwind of activity. Scissors were flashing, pins were pushed into
place. Pieces came together. And then, the whirl of the ancient sewing
machine. The creak of the treadle as Becky pumped it, and the staccato clicking of
the needle as it passed through fabric and scraped against the foot plate on its way back
home.
It was a feverish afternoon of work. And at its conclusion, Becky placed the
fruits of her labor on a hanger and hung it on the side of the closet they normally would
not visit until winter. The side with all the heavy coats and clothes. In the
dark recess nobody would think to look into.
Big Jim and Wendy were a little quiet around the supper table. You could tell Big
Jim was not himself when he did not go for thirds on Becky's biscuits, even though he
still had a little puddle of gravy on his plate. That always was a good excuse for
another biscuit.
Wendy, she had snapped back to form. Disappointment never lasted long with her.
She buzzed like a little bee at the table. Told her parents about the art
project that had done, using their hands to first trace and then paint pictures of
chickens, or was that a turkey. And she was pleased she had all the answers for math
class too.
She mentioned the fashion show but did not dwell on it. She said Mary told everybody
about the new dress her parents had gotten for her. Sarah had said she had new
clothes too for the fashion show. Wendy then dropped the subject like a rock. She
put the next day's fashion show out of her mind and lit up the room with a smile that said
she just was happy to be at home and with her parents.
When Wendy went to bed that night, Big Jim sat in his favorite chair with his head held
between his hands. "I wish I could have gotten something for her so she could
be in that fashion show tomorrow," he said, but to no one in particular.
Becky sat by his side in her favorite thread-bare chair, working on her nightly crossword
puzzle, "Don't worry Jim," Becky said confidently, "Wendy will be in that
show tomorrow."
The next day started with the rise of the sun. After their morning devotions,
and a hearty breakfast, each member of the family seemed ready for the start of their day.
Big Jim had his lunch can and was ready for work., Wendy had her lunch bag in one
hand and her books in her other.
"Wait a minute Wendy," Becky cautioned, "Aren't your forgetting
something?"
Wendy looked from hand to hand, "I think I have everything," she bubbled with
her normal enthusiasm.
"Then what am I going to do with this," said Becky, holding aloft a hanger from
which hung the most elegant, pretty, sparkling white dress with little yellow daisies that
Wendy ever had seen.
"You were going to walk out without your fashion show dress," Becky said with a
mock frown.
Wendy dropped her books where she stood. Her lunch fell on the same heap. With a
running start she jumped into Becky's arms. Like ball lightning, Wendy did not stop
her motion until a running leap had her cradled in Big Jim's arms too.
"This is going to be the prettiest dress of all in the fashion show,"
Wendy yelled back as she started down the path to school. "When I
asked God in my prayers for a fashion show dress, I never knew He would get the nicest one
in all the world for me."
Big Jim and Becky stood, locked in an embrace in the doorway, and watched as their little
girl disappeared in the distance on her way to school.
There were no words needed and none were said.
They knew the kitchen windows could live a little longer with newspaper coverings. But
more importantly, they knew how God had used both of them to get Wendy her fashion show
dress.
God always takes care of our needs, but often times these needs are not filled directly
but by those whose hearts He touches along the way.
Sometimes we miss out on our blessing, waiting for a more direct, dramatic response by God
to the prayers we have tendered for our needs. While God has been busily working through
others to make sure our needs were met.
Wendy could have and would have lived if she did not get that dress but there would have
been a big gap in the Johnson family folklore if she had not received it.
That dress was at the heart of the love the Johnson family had for one another. Like
Wendy, it was conceived in love and it brought love with each passage along the way.
Even in her old age, tucked away in the corner of the closet, Wendy kept a little white
dress with yellow daisy's. She would pull it out when her grandchildren visited and
then she would retell their favorite tale. A story about a little old house,
the love of Big Jim and Becky. And how God loved all of them most of all.
Even decades old, it still was a pretty little dress fit for a princess. The little
red ribbon hanging from it said it was a fashion show winner.
