Nuns and Nones

When my brother and I were children, Mama took us pretty much everywhere she went.  I can remember only one time when she absolutely refused to take us – well, me – with her.  She went to a baby shower and we stayed home with Daddy.  Even then, she brought us mints and petit fours decorated with baby booties.  It turned out well.  We went to the park with Daddy and then got goodies when Mama came home. 

One day, Mama and my grandmother had us out shopping.  We had looked at clothes and shoes and tried on stuff and we were getting a little cranky.  When we stepped out of the store and onto the sidewalk, I saw the most amazing thing.  So did my brother.  Up until that point, I had not thought they really existed, but there they were on the very same sidewalk and coming toward us.  I started yelling, “Look at the witches!  Look at the witches!”  Mama immediately shushed me, but the damage was done. 

Walking toward us, smiling and laughing, were two nuns.  Yep.  I had mistaken those two nuns in their habits for witches, of all things.  They did not seem at all offended, but poor Mama was just mortified.  She apologized on my behalf, and they very graciously said it was not necessary, and it had provided them a good laugh.  Meanwhile, I was trying to figure out what they were.  Mama said they were “nuns,” but I heard “nones.”  I wasn’t up on my homophones back then.  But, even so, I knew that none was nothing – and, whatever they were, they surely weren’t nothing.

Now, fast forward.  I am walking in the mall and I have a preschool age Matthew with me.  All of a sudden, I hear this big voice coming from my small child.  It is saying, “Mama, I see a witch!”  It was, of course, a nun.  Really.  I cannot make up a life funnier than the one I live. 

Sometimes, we think we see “witches.”  Sometimes, we experience “witches.”  They look like something scary, something awful, something up to no good.  (Sometimes, they actually ARE scary, awful, up to no good.)  Then God steps in and says, “I’ve got this.  Those are ‘nones.’  Don’t be afraid.”   

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  John 14:27