Blanket comforter

Some days toddlers cry and whine so miserably that nothing soothes or comforts except maybe their special blankie. We didn’t have blankies, we had sulkies. The name sprung up when two of my then toddlers found comfort in the soft, silky material of my nightgowns or slips.Our youngest stroked her cheek with any silky, soft slip I had worn for a few hours. It soothed her troubled soul and stopped her screech of misery. Once after it soothed her through a particularly hard time, she smiled contentedly and thrust it toward me with a smile saying, “Here. Smell it.” Because she offered it, I held it for a minute finally understanding that it not only satisfied her with its texture but also a comforting, mother’s scent. Her older brother, as a baby, absconded with my nightgowns. Any rayon nightgown worked until the day my mom came to visit carrying a bright red nightgown from my sister. I liked it and wore it that night. The next day my one-year-old claimed it as his own. I never wore it again. He became our own little Linus dragging that thing everywhere. To the playroom, outside to the sandbox, or to the kitchen where he played underfoot as I prepared food. A red, silky tail followed him everywhere. Two months after his second birthday, his little baby brother arrived. He did not understand why he and his brothers had to go to the neighbors in the middle of the night. He stood at the top of their stairs crying. The neighbors, still childless, looked at each other. What could they do for him? “Give him a drink of water and that nightgown,” one of the older boys said. That worked to calm him to sleep. In the morning his grandmother came, and he went home. When I arrived home with the baby, one of the big brothers sat on the couch with me ready to hold the tiny baby. My husband grabbed a camera. The baby started crying. Our toddler looked at the screaming infant. He ran over to the spot where he had dropped his sulky as he rushed to see this tiny person. He grabbed his red nightgown and rushed over to his crying little brother, “Here,” he confidently thrust it into the baby’s face. Hubby snapped a shot of him sharing his most treasured possession with the newborn. The infant did not find it comforting. Still, I found it touching that he gave everything he treasured to comfort his brother in distress. Such a gift. And such confidence in the comforter. Our pastor recently did a children’s lesson on the Holy Spirit as our Comforter. He brought his son’s and daughter’s cozy sleep sacks and one soft plush toy. “When they are not happy, they grab their sleep sacks and rub them. They comfort and calm them, just like Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to comfort us after He left.”As my son immediately knew what his brother needed, Christ promised the Comforter for us. In troubling times, when we just do not understand what is happening all around us, the Holy Spirit is there to comfort us. He comes from Heaven with a whiff of the Heavenlies to remind us of our safe and secure place with God. He is there when trouble hits, when we are restless or cannot seem to make sense of the confusion of this world. We don’t even have to ask or find Him, like Linus’ blanket, our Great Comforter always comes along wherever we go.