Birthday Party!

“You get to go to your friend's birthday party! He's going to be five years old! You're going to have cake and play games; and you're going to give him a present! Doesn't that sound like fun?”

Well, most of it sounded fun; but I had to weigh the pros and cons carefully. Even at four years of age, I knew that there is no such thing as a free lunch. There was a cost hidden in that allegedly happy announcement – a big one; and I had a hard time believing that Mom was so excited about it. Of course, adults are strange creatures. You can never tell how they're going to react. I sat down and thought carefully, and decided that I would be willing to do it because he was one of my best friends. It was a hard decision, though.

What do you give your friend for his 5^th birthday? You can't give him some baby toy. Five is a big birthday – just ask anybody - so it's got to be a really good toy. I was a little reluctant; but I opened the lid to the deacon's bench that served as my toy chest and began to search. I took out all of the things that were broken. Those were clearly not good enough to give him. I took out all of the things that had pieces missing. Those weren't good enough, either. The little toys were eliminated because my present had to make a splash. After ages of searching, and a lot of internal struggle, I finally chose which of my toys to give him for his birthday.

Mom looked into my bedroom and asked what I was doing.

“I'm picking out which toy to give him,” I said.

“No, son. You don't have to give him one of your toys. We'll go to the store and get him a new one.”

Why didn't she say so to start with? Let's go!