Bee Bo

Peanut loves to find her belly button. We ask her if she has a Bee Bo and she immediately doubles over, craning her neck and pulling up her shirt to fish around for the prize. Usually this dance lands her on her head, but with a great view of the treasured remnant of her first connection to life and nutrition. And when she finds it she giggles in a way that is at once both startled and satisfied with so monumental a discovery. I love every part of this ritual and naturally ask about her Bee Bo a dozen times a day.
I love that she loves her body, that is brings her great satisfaction and delight with every new skill it can perform. I love that she is driven to use it. That her bones and muscles must run and climb. See and do. Taste. Touch. Smell. Taste again. I watch her toddling around the yard, chubby legs bulging around the top of her socks and dimples at the elbows. I pray that she will grow taller and stronger but not outgrow her appreciation for the intricate detail and amazing abilities of the temporal covering her Heavenly Father designed for her.
I have a bump of sorts on my cheek, which has occupied the attention of the scientific son. Really I just need to admit it is a mole, but a mole on the face conjures up visions of pointy noses and black hats, and I am hesitant to admit or draw attention to such similarities. One night, after careful inspection Mister asked, “What do you have on your face, Mom?”
“It is just a bump. It doesn’t hurt.” I answered.
“Yup,” he agreed. “That is just the way God made you.”
I have turned his words over in my mind on many early mornings, while squinting at my creased and baggy-eyed early morning face reflected in the bathroom mirror. His frank acceptance of the design and his respect for the Great Designer is beautiful and right. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Even when I don’t feel like it.
Unlike Peanut, my Bee Bo doesn’t get out much, but is still a great reminder of my humanity. And the fact that even my physical body was built around necessary connections. Was built with careful blueprints by capable hands and intended for good works and appropriate wonder.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:13-14