Loving Monkeys
Carol Crawford Rowe
I have just completed many hours of loving labor, in which I created from seventeen pairs of socks, seventeen unique and colorful monkeys for the K4 class that my daughter presides over in Florida. Little children there will love and care for these fabric creatures all through this school year, and take one home in the spring, for a lifetime of hugs, shared naps, hugs, bike rides, and other learning and sharing activities as they desire.
I packed them with a kiss for each, knowing that my sorrow at their leaving will be overcome by the joy of the children who receive them. And why, I am sure you are wondering, would I have sadness at sharing my creations, especially since I knew from the beginning that they were for the children, and not for me.
When I create a sock animal, I work until it is complete. Then I embroider the face, mouth first, then eyes and lashes. When the eyes appear, the animal springs to “life”. Its personality appears. It becomes almost a living creature to me, and I fall in love, over and over again, as each one appears. Since May, I have created, from socks, twenty-seven monkeys, one hippo, one puppy, and one kitten, for various children.
Each is unique, with its own imperfections – crooked smiles, lopsided ears, lumpy heads, and various colors of body and facial features. I send them into the world, loving them and wishing joy for the young lives that they will enter. I don’t miss the labor when they are gone, but I miss the uniqueness and the quirky look of each one.
That is how I understand the love of God for each of us. There are more of us than a census can track, yet each is unique and valuable. With all our imperfections, all our individual appearances and personalities, I believe that God smiles upon us in genuine affection, as well as unconditional love. If I, being human, can fall in love with cloth animals that I have created, how much more does God, heavenly creator, fall in love with the humans who bear his image in this world?!
