The Grocery Store Singer
I’m stuck on a grocery store theme at the moment. It seems that the frozen food section is where God captures my attention best. I hadn’t thougth about the “singing mom” for years, but just yesterday I stumbled on this brief prologue I wrote years ago for an unfinished book. It was written from the heart of a mom seeking joy in the journey. And as I read the words now, I am prone to tears. God has indeed given me a NEW SONG. How I praise Him that He loved me too much to leave me as I was.
I heard her coming long before I saw her face. The grocery store was abuzz with Monday morning shoppers- bustling business women grabbing fresh bagels and cream cheese for the office crowd, unhurried elderly couples sauntering arm in arm while admiring the colors of the autumn produce, and frazzled mothers like me trying to restock the cupboards after a weekend of church potlucks and famished children.
I had just rescued my toddler from sure death in the frozen foods section (No, you may not HIDE behind those big cold doors) and was explaining to my preschooler for the tenth time why we were not going to buy the box of sugar pops with the plastic toy inside when I heard it: a happy song wafting from behind the cardboard tower of cereal boxes. The perfect pitch and flawless melody made me stop in my tracks. While the tune was child’s play, the singer was no child. “Must be a newlywed,” I surmised, “or maybe the elementary music teacher grabbing a few donuts for the teacher’s lounge”
Without a second thought, I collected my girls and recovered the trail of pretzels left in our wake. I would have missed her if I hadn’t needed to chase my toddler through the meat department on our way to the check out counter. But as we skidded around the corner, I spotted her. Still singing, she grabbed a pack of hotdogs and tossed them into her overflowing cart. Shocked, I realized that the grocery store vocalist wasn’t the elementary music teacher or a blushing bride. She was a mom like me, cart towering with the necessities of life, children hanging from her elbows and knees. Still, she was singing and yes, even smiling.
If I have had a moment of sheer covetousness, it was there in aisle four. With her melodic praise ringing in my ear, I stared at an anomaly of motherhood as I knew it. What does that woman have that I don’t? my heart wondered. Surface appearances suggested we were not all that different. She had three children in tow, while I had dropped one at school and had my remaining two in hand. We both sported wedding rings on our left hand and grocery lists in our right. Her children skittered in the aisles and bombarded her with requests not unlike mine, yet her eyes danced with delight as she convinced them to leave the pop tarts behind. Her smile was not painted on for the sake of the grocery store clerk. She appeared to be a mother in love with motherhood.
As I pulled out of the parking lot that day, I told the Lord that I would know He had transformed me when I caught myself, with children in hand, singing unrestrained in the aisles of the grocery store.
Just for the record, today as I made my way through the aisles of WalMart with Joshua the race car “squealing” his tires at every turn, I sang a little bit of my favorite junior high camp tune: “Give me gas for my Ford, keep me trucking for the Lord. Give me gas for my Ford, I pray. Hallelujah!” Go ahead, sing along. Maggie did (I guess singing is just as useful as a lollipop when it comes to shopping cart diversions).
And next time you find yourself in the frozen food section with a dive-bombing preschooler, try this verse. It just may be the key to surviving the long walk to the check-out lane:
“Give me a smile in this aisle keep me praising through each trial. Give me a smile in this aisle, I pray. Hallelujah!”
Today’s Treasure: Sing to the Lord a new song! –Psalm 96:1
