My Head a Piñata This Instant!

My Head a Piñata

Camping is at its best when you've got a roaring campfire, your best buds sitting around it in some cheap folding chairs, twinkling stars overhead, and a toasted marshmallow squished between a couple of graham crackers and chocolate. Oh, and the remains of a busted piñata scattered at your feet.

It was the weekend of my seventeenth birthday. My high school buddies and I had packed up and headed out for a rambunctious weekend at the beach. On my actual birthday, they unveiled a gift that has yet to be topped: a piñata. Of my head.

Yes.

They hand-crafted a piñata (thoughtful) of my head (weird) thinking it would be fun to wail on this thing (with my face painted on it, remember), bust it open, and eat the candy that would burst out. I felt oddly honored...somehow. I mean, how often can one boast, “I bet you never had anyone make a piñata for you before! Oh, you have? Well, was it of your HEAD?!”

Every one of those friends on that camping trip remains in contact with me today. In fact, they’re all on this email list, so I hope they enjoy the memory. My point being – these friends are tried and true. They’re the real deal. After high school, they didn’t just make like a piñata and bust.

When it comes to showing my love and affection for another, I tend to think that the way I do it is NORMAL. That everyone should show me their love in the same way I do for them. But, oh, how wrong I am! And how heartbroken I would be if I didn’t recognize these different methods for what they are. What if I had thought the piñata was a cruel, mean joke and missed the point entirely? But the piñata said, “You’re weird, Jodi, and we GET your sense of humor. (And we're weird, too, because we made this thing!)” Friends like that are hard to come by.

How do you show your love for your spouse/significant other/family/friends? How do you receive theirs? Are you waiting for them to say "I love you" in the exact same way that you do? Or can you accept their gifts or words or actions or touch or time as gestures of their love for you? (And no, men, this concept does not mean that you're off the hook simply because you put down the toilet seat.)

”Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved you and gave himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins.”
Ephesians 5:2

“Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.”
2 John 1:6