“I saw a Braum’s truck last Tuesday morning.” I mean I really saw that truck. Right at the crossroad on Main Street. I felt smacked on the head and heard, “Wake up.” I looked around and thought, “All these stores have to get their stuff from someplace. There’s Walgreens, CVS, Tractor Supply, Braums, Homeland, Dollar Store. I suddenly realized this doesn’t happen by magic. These proprietors do a great job to furnish supplies and labor to meet my needs!
Listen again, “I saw a Braum’s truck last Tuesday morning.” Hear the music in the words. Repeat with me: I saw a Braum’s truck last Tuesday morning. Let me tell you how seeing that truck and all it represented brought beauty to my day. I’ll give you some examples.
I needed green paint – kind of an indescribable green, not lime, not avocado, not forest. I couldn’t find it in my color wheel. So I took a chip from under the light switch plate, a piece about the size of my fingernail. Feeling a bit embarrassed at my request, I ask the paint man if he could match my color. Completely undaunted, he took my little chip, put it under a little microscope-looking thingy, twisted a knob or two, looked through a little lens, jotted down a few numbers. Got up, got paint, opened the lid with a little baby crowbar, set the can on a round metal shelf, twirled a gadget around a bit, scrunched a lever sort of like the pump thing you use to get catsup at Braum’s. Added another little squirt of something. put the lid on, stuck it in a machine that looked like an open front clothes washer with hands that gripped that paint; it shook the daylights out of it. The man took the can, opened it, took a dab of that paint and dabbed it on my chip. Look at that, the same color. Wow. In about five minutes he settled my problem!
On to Walmart’s flower section. Found just the flower I wanted. Made in China. Sail the seas, fly the sky, ride the rail, travel the truck, through the door, stacked on the floor, pushed down the hall, hung on the wall. Cost me a buck. That’s all! Took it to my place, put it in the vase, set it on it’s shelf space, all with a smile on my face!
Umm. Smell that coffee. Just think how many people had to do their jobs efficiently in order to get that smell from Jamaica and into my kitchen!
Went to the recliner. Switched on the light. Wow. Recliner, light! Picked up my Bible and a pencil. Isn’t a pencil something! So perfectly polished, painted, and pointed. And how do they get that lead through that hole?
This recliner feels good. Open the Bible. Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord thy God will rejoice over thee with joy: ,,,he will joy over thee with singing.” He will joy over ME with singing!?
You know, I think seeing that Braum’s truck tuned me right on to the channel where the Lord was singing last Tuesday morning when I opened my eyes to see what great benefits were given to me right here in small town America!
I really enjoyed reading your snipet. We should take the time to sit back and appreciate the things we don’t see. The truck.in your case. God bless you.
Thanks, tlizzy, sometimes just appreciating the small things can be awesome.
Great musings. Keep it up!
I still remember the first time I entered a Braum’s store. It was in Paris, Texas. Someone, the company had slipped over the border, and was right there, providing some perfectly wonderful ice cream.
And I loved the paint example. I’d never seen the color-matching technology work until the day I was standing next to a woman who pulled an actual eggplant out of her purse at the Home Depot paint counter. She wanted an eggplant-colored door for her gray house, and by golly, she got one!
A small thing? In the grand scheme of things, maybe. But the complexity of the chain that makes matching a paint chip possible is just amazing.
A real egg plant! Amazing. Thanks for reading and sharing some of the things that boggle my mind!