Brown Paper Pkgs & Favorite Things

This morning when I went into the kitchen there was a small brown package wrapped in string with some tiny dried roses on top. My son, Robert, asked me if I saw them. He said that a thread of a song kept running through his head when he was trying to decide how to wrap it … “brown paper packages tied up with string … these are a few of my favorite things.” I can’t wait to open it.

Thursday night a bunch of us went to see “The Sound of Music” that was put on by the Mesilla Valley Christian School drama team. It was a lot of fun. Robert actually went with us. Being my son, he’s seen the movie several times. We got to talking about how many times we’d seen “The Sound of Music.” I actually wrote a paper for a journalism class on it. There are several versions of the movie and of the play. But the most famous is the one done by Julie Andrews in 1965.

The way I remember it … it was the first time I remember going to the movies. We got in the Oldsmobile someone had given us ( my parents were attending Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in San Fransico) and drove a l-o-n-g time to get there. The theater was h-u-g-e and it was in Color! It was so amazing. I felt as if I’d been transformed to another place. The music, the colors, I just wanted to sing and sing and sing. I lived in a dream world for weeks.

My mother bought the record and we listened to that record until we knew all of the lyrics by heart. That is one of my most precious memories … my mom and I singing and cleaning and dancing around our house. In my mind, my mother was Julie Andrews, and that’s who I wanted most to grow up and be like … my mom.

Today, physically I don’t look a lot like my mom but everyone says that we look alike … I think it’s because we have a lot of the same mannerisms. You see I watched her and listened to her for years until … I knew her by heart. These memories I have and the ones we continue to make are “a few of my favorite things!”

That brown paper package sitting on the table reminds me of a whole lot of “favorite things” between me and my son. I pray that God will bring to your mind some “favorite things” this Mother’s Day.

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable

—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—

think about such things.

9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me,

or seen in me—put it into practice.

And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4:8,9

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Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes

Silver white winters that melt into springs

These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I'm feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don't feel so bad