The Wishbone Wish
“Papa Tom, why do you have those?”
My ‘Little Buddy’, Connor, had come over for the weekend. We were making one of our ‘Special Drinks’ in the blender for breakfast, when he pointed up to a hook that I had placed on the side of the dish cabinet, high above the kitchen sink. On it I had collected various sized chicken and turkey wishbones.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I just always thought it was sort of a special part of a chicken or turkey, plus you can make wishes with them.”
“Can you show me Papa?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said as I reached up and selected a wishbone worthy of a first wishbone wish.
“First you have to make a wish, but don’t tell me what it is, and I’ll do the same. Then we each hold one of the ends of the wishbone and when I say ‘go’ we each pull until it breaks. Whoever ends up with the big piece in the middle gets their wish. Are you ready?”
Connor’s face beamed with excitement and anticipation as he focused on the big piece in the middle of the wishbone. I, on the other hand, was a seasoned wishbone wisher and prided myself on knowing the secret that would ensure a win. I figured that if I reversed the process I could let Connor have his first win.
“Go,” I said and we both pulled.
Snap! The wishbone broke in two and with all my intent to let Connor win I still ended up with the bigger half.
Sadness covered Connor’s face like a cloud covering the sun.
“Awe, now I won’t get my wish.”
“I don’t know,” I said “what did you wish for?”
Some of the excitement returned to Connor’s face as he remembered his wish.
“I wished we would find a new hiking place, and a new biking place, and a new canoeing place. What did you wish for Papa?”
“I wished that you would get your wish.” I said as I watched the sunshine return to his face.
“You know, I just heard of a new bike trail that opened up not far from here. Maybe we should check it out.”
“Let’s do it!” he said as he headed for the door.
The trail was a newly opened piece of the Illinois-Michigan Trail. We took our bikes out there that day. It was a beautiful trail and we saw many others biking and hiking. The trail even went past some old quarries. One was totally surrounded by trees and looked like a beautiful lake with many rock cliffs to explore. We even took our canoe out there on other days.
So on the day Connor made his first ‘wishbone wish’ we found ‘a new hiking place, and a new biking place, and a new canoeing place.’
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Just a Post Script to the story above. When I wrote the story about Connor’s first Wishbone Wish he must have been only about 4 years old. It was just one of those blessings totally orchestrated by God; knowing before hand the love Connor and I had for each other and how we’d each respond.
Connor visited this past April. He’s eleven now. I was doing some kitchen remodeling and had taken the wishbones down from the hook above the sink, and placed them in a bowl on the counter. I saw Connor look over at them and I asked if he wanted to make a wish. He just grinned and said “yeah, sure.” I knew we could never repeat that first Wishbone Wish. What could God possibly do to let us know he was involved in this one too? We both smiled and went through the motions. We each grabbed a side of the wishbone and I said “Ready? Go.” We both pulled and it snapped. The big piece in the center broke free of both our stems and shot to the ceiling. We both just looked at each other and smiled, knowing somehow that God was up there smiling too.