The Yellow Phone

Alex likes to say things that seem totally obvious, except to me, until he explains and then I have about 3.7 minutes to think about them.

For example: while he was discussing with my mother something I had done, he finished up with, "It's just that red phone of hers!"

He had mentioned my having a red phone once or twice before. I thought it was weird. My phone isn't red. It's green. Actually, it's black, but the rubbery case thing is green. Really green. 

I made him explain to me what this red phone business was about. He said it was an expression that meant a person had a direct line to God, and God always answered it.

Sheesh, I thought, if I had known I supposedly had one of those I'd have used it loads more.

Alex kept mentioning it, so I kept thinking about it. I tend to think things to death, as it's been said. 

For another example: the blog name. Been thinking that To. Death. For a couple of months now. I knew that changing it was right, but what in the world was I going to change it to? I kept trying different stuff and the ideas just wouldn't stick. Praying about it lots, thinking about it lots, even googling "fun new blog names" or something like that. What can I say? I like thinking about things, until they settle just right into my brain.

So, when my beloved kept mentioning, as I said, this red phone business, eventually this happened in my head:

Well, if I did have a direct line, the phone wouldn't be red. I like red, but really? A red phone? That sounds like a perpetual emergency. Ain't nobody got time fo dat. Who wants to answer a phone that's always for an emergency? If God were going to give me a direct line, and always answer it, I'd want Him to be smiling when it rang at least some of the time. Goodness, if it were red and always an emergency maybe He'd be like, 'Oh, there goes that panicky red phone again. This kid..." So it can't be red. Since I supposedly have one I am totally going to start putting that to some serious use. I like this direct line to God business. That is just so cozy. But not a red phone. Eloise has a pink phone in the Plaza. But I don't want a pink phone. A really happy-looking phone would be...YELLOW.

Like a sunflower, yo. 

Of course we all have direct access to God, and of course we don't even have to wait for any phone to ring to know if He's listening or worry about whether He's going to go all smartphone on us and reject the call...but the mental image had an undeniably quirky appeal. 

I gots me a yellow phone, I thought grinning, and convinced a yellow phone had the capability of making God's heart grin, too, no matter how often I kept it ringing.

Maybe even because I kept it ringing.

And suddenly, the blog had its new name.

The Yellow Phone.

It expresses exactly the idea of what I was looking for: something joyful, something that just is. An open conversation with God. A chance to live in closeness with Him, to beat peacefully alongside His Heart as I learn to be the heart of the Alex Hanson home. 

A reminder to just be. 

So, the blog will be getting its little makeover soon. I've already designed the new header and I am SO excited about it...I can't wait to show you all! 

And you can think it's goofy all you want. I is what I is, and that's how it will be. ;)