This is my crazy friend. Her name is Leland and I love her because she makes me laugh. All the time. Every time I run into this woman she’s very seriously doing something crazy. The funny thing is she doesn’t think it’s crazy and that really makes me laugh. Her boys think it’s crazy, but she doesn’t. Her husband thinks it’s crazy, but she doesn’t.
Here is an example of the latest crazy day in the life of Leland. We volunteer together for our boys high school football team. Last Friday we were preparing the pre-game meal for the players in the school cafeteria and Leland showed up to serve with a box that she had to plug into an outlet. “Susan, Susan,” she calls, “come look at my babies. I rescued them.” She anxiously unfolded a flannel blanket, as if she were unwrapping a sixteenth century Ming vase, to expose three tiny squirrels, eyes clamped shut, looking for all the world, like scrawny little ….
She squealed with awe and wonder as she tenderly picked one up and adoringly presented him to me. “Look, look at how precious he is!” Then her face changed and she pulled the little critter protectively back, with the urgency of a Navy Seal on a life threatening mission, she motioned to the box and whispered, “Quick put them back, the boys are coming. I don’t want my boys to see that I brought them. They think I’m crazy.”
And they do.
But Leland doesn’t care, she is crazy for creation. She loves every little thing on earth. She treasures the life of those little squirrels, feeding them every hour and a half morning, noon and all through the night. The joy she found in the little creatures was infectious, so I couldn’t help but agree that they were, indeed, precious. Leland finds joy in a lot of things, serving her family, serving the youth at her church, and serving wayward youth in court (she’s an attorney) because they are precious little creations, too. She is crazy busy, but always joyful. It makes me want to be crazy, too – crazy for creation, crazy for my work, crazy for my family and crazy for the joy that only God can bring.
This is my crazy friend Leland, I ran into her at the football game later that same day. “Leland, why are you wearing those glasses?” I asked. “They are a fashion statement,” she replied, seriously, “but don’t tell my husband. He thinks I am crazy.”
And he does.
I laughed.
