View Master

I thought of View Master this morning, the three-d slide show of a far away past. Mine were passed down from my older siblings.  A black hand viewer that you placed cards with cellophane pictures in it to look at by yourself and then the projector. We also had one, that maybe came from the "farm" as Mom called her grandparents' home, with the elongated stem that a person placed special cards that were viewed from special lenses to give a three dimensional effect.  I loved the projector I shone on the wall with my friends. When I got a tape recorder, I wanted to read the booklet that came with the Disney stories with a ding to show when to change the picture, like the slide shows we had at school.
Our Disney slides included Peter Pan, my favorite and Sleeping Beauty, that I can remember. The characters stood out from the background and looked different than on screen. I can't even imagine what I would have done with videos like my kids had. Children today would have an app on their phone for their favorite movies I guess.
One Saturday morning I shoved a slide from the family Kodak file into the slot of the projector. Curious if it would fit and found out it wouldn't come back out, I hid it behind a chair. I don't know why I was scared. I felt stupid. Stupid was trying to cover up natural curiosity.
Dad must have found it, but he never said anything to me. He fixed it, as dads can. Sometimes, Dad would tell me he knew what I did, but never to make me feel shameful. I think Dad understood little people's curiosity in this case.
I look back on this and wonder why didn't I tell my dad I did that and have him fix it for me? I was the only one at home that would do something stupid like that, so hiding it didn't keep me from being discovered. I didn't want to confront him with my weakness, I think. Yet, he had never condemned me, nor did I ever see him belittle anyone. Why was I afraid?
Are we not like that at times with our heavenly Father? We stray a bit from the path. We shove something too big into a slot not made for that purpose. A view master projector is only made for view master slides, not Kodak slides, same idea, but wrong machinery. We, in our ignorance at times, make mistakes, then shove them behind the easy chair or couch in the living room, hoping for some time before cleaning so we can run from it.
Our Father knows our mistakes. He even knows our motives. He knows our hearts. Sometimes, I do think He fixes things and they show up in our play area with no word spoken. Wouldn't it be better though for ourselves, if we fessed up and have Him fix our mistake there, hug us and send us again on our way? We don't have to be proud. We come to God as little children with a big old slide stuck in a view master projector.