Tomorrow my niece and nephew are supposed to be having a birthday party, but unfortunately it’s been cancelled because bad weather is keeping my parents and I from traveling there [1].
In preparation for this visit I got the normal items (cards and presents) but knew one more thing had to be done.
Mr. Tickle Monster had to wish them happy birthday.
I’m not necessarily sure how this began, but sometime during my first furlough in 2009 while playing with my niece I came up with the ingenious idea of bringing my thumb up to meet the hands four remaining fingers to create something that looked like a mouth. Of course this resulted in chasing her around a room, and often tickling ensued.
His original name was “tickle monster” but we eventually decided on “mr. tickle monster [2].
My nieces love of mr. tickle monster continued to grow as he always had a habit of showing up during my Skype chats with them from Australia, or in pictures I took of myself while there.
During my current stay in the States my nephew has also learned to enjoy mr. tickle monster though his response is different from hers [3].
So last Friday I created a video of myself along with mr tickle monster saying happy birthday; think the worst ventriloquist act or stand up comedy routine you’ve ever seen, and you will get the general idea.
Editors note: Just in case your interested in getting a copy of this video forget about it. The only two in existence are with me and my brother who will play it for them (but may be willing to sell it to the highest bidder).
Okay now for the big question…what in the world does the tickle monster have to do with returning to Melbourne?
Just that God gives each of us different gifts and talents (for instance I can entertain children and create ridiculous looking videos). And each of those are meant to be used for His Glory.
To take this gift of connecting with children and not use it would be like the parable Jesus told about the servant who buried a coin his master had given in the sand instead of using it wisely.
So I look for ways to use this gift in the States and Australia (sometimes using mr. tickle monster [4]). And practice that connection so the Lord will be honored by its involvement in ministry.
Don’t worry you won’t be seeing mr. tickle monster in any of my sermons or Bible studies. But rest assured he will be ready to control a group of rowdy children 🙂
- don’t worry they already got their presents ↩
- since just calling him tickle monster seemed too rude ↩
- my niece laughs and run away, while my nephew immediately starts hitting the tickle monster, consequently this had led to him being seen less while video chatting with my brother on his phone ↩
- in these cases he is used for entertainment only ↩
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