Tim’s Blog, January 2024

The Small Tin Box

I learned early in life that parents, as well as regular people, probably, have a lot of interesting stuff in hiding places all over the house. Remarkably they believe that stuff is safe from the prying eyes of their children!

So much is wrong with that notion. First of all, “prying eyes.” Children are developing at a pace very much linked to the level of their curiosity, imagination, and their will to discover new things. Ask any educator (preferably one without their own children at home,) and they will give you clinical verification of the necessity of the above traits for healthy development.

I confess, as a parent raising four children, I did not look at the traits above from a clinical perspective. They just scared the h__l out of me! I was on the crew of a Navy ship experiencing the possible malfunctioning of a nuclear weapon that was stored below decks. Kids are scarier.

I believe the vast majority of parents in the annals of history, from when the first parent crawled out of earth’s primitive muck and mire and learned to walk (which comes in handy when you’re looking for tools your kid “borrowed” and forgot to return to their proper places,) have experienced the same fear and confusion.

All this is prelude to my actual story (sorry!). In my constant quest to know what my parents might have put in a “safe place,” I once found a small Tin Box--very old and very interesting. It looked like something that Dickens might have discovered when he was a child. There was a catch keeping it closed. When I figured out the catch (after all, I was 10 years old,) the Tin Box revealed several very old coins. They were like nothing I had seen before: some U.S. coins and some foreign. They were fascinating, but I realized that Tin Box and its contents probably once belonged to my Dad’s parents. My grandmother died when I was 5 years old, and Dad’s father died years before I was born, so I only knew him from pictures. Only now, in my old age, do I think Dad must have still been grieving this terrible loss.

About this time, my sister Sally, 4 years younger than I, developed a hip problem causing her weakness and pain and an ugly limp. A young doctor diagnosed it as a deterioration of the bone that is at the top of the leg connected to her hip.

The solution to healing was fitting an incredibly ugly brace on the injured leg, holding her foot off the floor. On the healthy foot she needed to wear a shoe with a 4-inch sole, particularly ugly. Sally cried at her first fitting. Mom and Dad cried, too, and I was mostly confused and wondered how this could happen to my little sister. If it happened to her, could it happen to me?

Compounding the trouble for Mom and Dad was the fact that the cost of the brace was $400. Mom and Dad didn’t have $400. But Dad followed a hunch and took the Tin Box of coins to a collector. It was worth a little over $400. God is Good. The brace arrived. It was tough for Sally, but she was courageous and kept her life going strong.

My father took the lead in using the prescribed exercises to help Sally learn to walk wearing the brace. She did well, even though uncomfortable. Sally wore this brace for 2 years, and, as you can imagine, it needed periodic adjustment and repair.

My Dad had friends at his place of work, and they knew about my sister’s situation. When Dad talked about adjustment and repair issues over a cup of coffee in the company cafeteria, some engineers he knew offered to help. “Can you show us the brace?” they asked. One day when Sally didn’t go to school because of a cold, Dad took the brace to work with him. The friends there analyzed it and took over the adjustment and repair necessary for my sister to continue to heal while getting on with school and play.

Now, the point of telling you my family story: “The moving finger of God in human history points ever in the same direction. There must be community”--Howard Thurman

This story of the Tin Box is full of characters who inhabit the world my father worked in. My Dad, Edward, never made much of a salary and worked at the same company for 42 years, dying at his desk one day. He was 61 years old. But he worked in quite a community of people who were happy to share their time and talent with others, and, in one chapter of the Hanley family’s life, brought healing and hope.

As part of your resolve to make 2024 a good year, re-read Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Start now if you aren’t sure where the Bible is at your place. Of all the words we have from Jesus, these are perhaps the most important, nicely packaged for your study.

Take these words to heart. Whenever you hear people talking about religion and what we can expect from God, these words apply. These words will bring you and me closer to God.

Happy New Year to you all. May our church always be a community of love, laughter, consolation and healing. God is Good!

—Tim