The Papers from the Gray House with the Wooden Door

This post, a story from a friend, dives straight into the river of my thoughts while reading Disappointment with God by Philip Yancey. When bad things happen, does God know and care? And if he sees, why does he not intervene? The book addresses these questions with skill and compassion, acknowledging that our minds are not made to answer all questions here in this life. Faith would not be faith if we could see; God would not be God if he was inside the boxes we make. “Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse,” Yancey says.

I may have more thoughts in future, but in the meantime, meet a little boy called “Freddy.” This story is especially meaningful to me after attending the joyful celebration of my niece’s adoption, after years of uncertainty. What about the other cases? This is one. I’ll warn you it was a bit of a tear-jerker for me to write up the following account, in the language of a child.

The Gray House with the Wooden Door

Freddy was a little boy with curly hair who had just learned to walk. He could throw balls and play peek-a-boo and eat crackers. He was just learning to use a spoon. At night, he slept with his precious gray blanket with a yellow edge.

But Freddy had a problem. His father did not take care of him. His mother did not have a good place for him to stay. She could not take care of him either. Finally, someone took Freddy to a case worker who cared for children with no home.

Where would Freddy live? Where would he sleep at night? Who would help him put on his clothes? Who would make his breakfast?

The case worker took Freddy to a gray house with a wooden door. Freddy was scared. He did not smile. Who would he see behind the door? Would they have crackers? Would there be a soft bed for him to sleep in with his gray blanket with the yellow edge?

In the gray house, Freddy found two boys and a dad and a mom. There was a bed for Freddy, and a bowl and a spoon. Freddy was still scared. But he liked the two boys. He liked their dad, and he called him Dad too. He especially liked their mom. He called her Mommy Julie. She took care of Freddy just like she cared for her other boys.

Mommy Julie poured cereal in his bowl for breakfast.

She helped him put on his clothes.

She tucked Freddy into bed with his gray blanket with the yellow edge.

After a few days, Freddy began to smile. He found a hat and put it on the head of one of the boys. He listened when his new dad taught him songs about Jesus. He learned to do the motions when he sang “Building up the Temple.”

Freddy went to church with the family and met many friends. He learned more songs and verses from the Bible.

Mommy Julie read books to Freddy. Freddy liked books.

She let him help make a pie crust.

Mommy Julie kissed Freddy good night just as if Freddy had always been her child. Mommy Julie wanted Freddy to stay forever.  

One day the case worker came to the gray house with the wooden door. She told Mommy Julie that Freddy’s mother was doing better. Maybe she could take care of Freddy now. He could go visit her. But Freddy’s mother did not have her own place to live. The case worker said Freddy could move back with his mother if she found a place to live.

Mommy Julie was very sad. She didn’t want Freddy to leave. Would his mother take care of him this time? Would she teach him about God? But she wanted the best for Freddy and his mother.

But she knew that God loved Freddy’s mother, too. She helped Freddy color pictures to take along when he visited his mother. She sent notes about Freddy. Freddy helped make breakfast! Freddy put all his toys away last night! Sometimes, Mommy Julie helped Freddy put his hand on a paper. She traced his hand with a colored pencil.

When Freddy went to visit his mother, he gave her the colored papers and notes and handprints.

Mommy Julie wondered, “Does Freddy’s mother look at the papers Freddy makes for her? Or does she just throw them in the trash?”

The case worker came back to the gray house with the wooden door. Freddy’s mother had found a place to live with Freddy. Soon she would move her things into the new house, and then Freddy could live with his mother.

But before Freddy’s mother could move her things to her new house, a fire started at the house where she was staying. Almost everything burned up.

Mommy Julie called her friends at church. “A fire burned up Freddy’s mother’s things!” she said. “Can we help buy her some new things for her new place?” Everyone at church loved Freddy too. They wanted him to stay in the gray house with the wooden door, too. Still, they all helped buy new things for Freddy’s mother.

A few days later, Freddy’s mother told Mommy Julie a story. Every time Freddy colored a picture or made a handprint, Freddy’s mother put it under a Bible she had upstairs.

What a good surprise! Mommy Julie did not know that Freddy’s mother had a Bible.

When the fire came, almost everything was destroyed in the upstairs. Everything around the Bible was burned. But the Bible and the pictures did not burn.

Everyone from church brought things for Freddy’s mother so she could move into her new house.  Freddy moved in with her, too.

Mommy Julie and her family were very sad when Freddy left. But she knew God cared about Freddy’s mother. She knew God was watching Freddy in his new home, just as He had been watching the colored papers in the fire.

Freddy still comes back to visit Mommy Julie and Dad and all his friends in the gray house with the wooden door. He still falls asleep, holding the gray blanket with the yellow edge.

“At once, the Cross revealed what kind of world we have and what kind of God we have,” Yancey says, “a world of gross unfairness, a God of sacrificial love.”

Philip Yancey

Below is my affiliate link to Disappointment with God: three questions no one asks aloud, but without doubt it can be borrowed from any library or purchased from any store.