"Cop stop Mom? Cop shoot Mom?"

Rüti bei Bülach

I think we all have sayings in our families that are fun things our kids or younger siblings said when they were little. In our house at least, they are often repeated in appropriate settings.

My brother used to mix up the first sounds of words that went together, so a baby crib became a craby bib. And a fly swatter became a swy flatter. My mom and I used to repeat those so often that at times we couldn't remember the correct words!!

Regensberg

Kasey, Alea and I spent the day together yesterday and I was able to share one of those "family expressions" with her. Now that Alea is sleeping through the night (yee haa!), Kasey thought rather than my coming over to help, she and Alea would like to get out and about. We decided to take a field trip to visit Regensberg, a city built in the 1200's on a hill near our home. The original city wall is still intact, although now it has been transformed into various homes and apartments. We then drove through Rüti bei Bülach, a little village nearby where her grandfather's grandfather was born! All Kasey had was the town name, no street address, but we took pictures of a couple places which could have been the home where he lived. Family history can be great fun.

Regensberg

But it was the drive in between the two towns that provided the opportunity to share a bit of my "family history" with Kasey. As we left the town of Dielsdorf, there was a policeman stopping traffic and diverting everyone into a large horse trailer parking lot. When we pulled in, there were about 25 policemen and women standing around, as well as multiple police vehicles. I was directed where to stop the car. After greeting the policeman who came to the window, I inquired, "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" "A little." Of course. And as usual, his English was excellent. He asked me to turn the car off, because people often get nervous when they are stopped by police and accidentally allow their car to move forward after stopped.

He asked for my license, and the necessary papers for the car. Thankfully, we had actually taken the papers out of the car the other day to check what arrangements we needed to make to ship the car home and we had returned them to the car. After checking my license, inspecting the license plate, commenting on our upcoming return to the US, he said that all was in order and we were free to leave. Kasey commented on the nervous feeling that you get, even when you've done all as you should. There is just something about being pulled over by a policeman that makes you nervous.

And so I shared with her how as a young mom, with both boys in the car, I was stopped (and ticketed, sigh) for failure to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. However, in the time between the policeman signaling for me to pull over and his actually reaching the car, I began to cry. [Note to any men reading this blog. Tears for a woman, if you haven't figured this out yet, are a normal part of life. They don't indicate a major trauma. It's our way of responding to emotion. Any emotion.] Steven was still in a car seat at this time, so I don't know how old he was, but somewhere between 2 and 4. I'm guessing that he was concerned by his mom's tears. He was a child of few words, but I heard this small voice in the back of the car pipe up.

"Cop stop Mom?"
"Yes, Steven, the policeman put his lights on so Mommy knew to pull the car over."
"Cop shoot Mom?"
"No, Steven, the policeman will not shoot Mommy."

So, how do you explain to a child that the policeman is just doing his job and not to fear being pulled over? I don't know. Both Kasey and I experienced a bit of fear. But having done all the law required, there should be no fear. Although as Bob commented on our being pulled over, "Well, at least we had hoped we had done all the law required, good to know we had."

I thought of how many people live their entire lives that way. Hoping they have done all that the law required. Or all that God required. Or all that they need to in order to get into heaven.
Praise be to God that He makes it clear.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God;
not as a result of works,
so that no one may boast."
Ephesians 2:8,9

That which I could not do, Christ did, on my behalf. Oh what unmerited favor! That's some family story that bears repeating. Often.