Do you remember the first R-rated movie you ever saw?  For me it was Endless Love.  I was eleven and I remember being highly disappointed.  What I really wanted to see was Animal House.  I had a great-aunt who said it was the “dirtiest” movie she’d ever seen.  As evidence that we are all born with a sinful nature, my curiosity was piqued the minute I heard her description.  By the time I did get around to seeing it, my sinful nature had skewed my definition of dirty and the only thing that really stood out was the music.  shama lama ding-dong

When I met my husband in February of 1989 he called me the “Shama Lama Ding Dong.”  He had me at Shama ;).

This week the word shama took on a new spelling and whole new meaning for me.  One of God’s Hebrew names is Jevohah-Shammah.  It is the name used at the end of Ezekial and it is the last new name given to God in the Old Testament.  Ezekial said that the city of Jerusalem would be called “Jehovah-Shammah”.  Meaning ~ The Lord is Present.

Much like a Stuart Smalley mantra, I’ve walked around saying it both out-loud and to myself.  “Jehovah-Shammah.”  “The Lord is Here!”  It’s a pretty powerful declaration to make.  Try it.

Yesterday I awoke at 5:30am to a fourteen year old boy standing in my doorway in a towel announcing that his shower would not turn off.  I thought my husband got up and took care of it. He didn’t. At 8am I woke again to an eleven year old boy announcing that his shower had been on all morning. As I walked through the kitchen towards his bathroom I paused and took note of the fact that my six-year-old has finally decided to color. Her first canvas? My kitchen table. Her medium of choice? An extra-wide black Sharpie. Happy. Happy. Joy. Joy.

Somewhere around 1pm we were able to get the cover off of the water main and shut the water off, and soon after a plumber arrived and replaced whatever needed replacing.  In between I spent three hours at the hospital being poked and prodded and learned that the padding that has grown on my hips and thighs is perfectly justifiable because my thyroid levels are nowhere close to what they should be.  You know that weight where your ‘fat-jeans’ are your only comfortable pants? Yea. I passed that weight about ten pounds ago. While I was at the hospital my dear hubby learned that whitening toothpaste and Lysol wipes will remove the majority of black sharpie from furniture (Sorry, Sofija.  We’ll memorialize your new talents on a proper canvas. I promise.)

In the middle of yesterday’s chaos, I found myself walking around my house, quietly declaring, “Lord, you are here.”  And occasionally singing out loud, “You’re my Shammah lama ding-dong….”

Now I just need Him to be present when the water bill arrives.