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From My Window on the World

    by Mike Jacks

Moon Sand
Date Posted: May 21, 2007

It’s easy to mold; it’s fun to hold.
It’s Moon Sand! It’s out of this world!

If you have ever attempted to do any creative writing, the first obstacle you encounter is yourself. Your mind must be focused and your heart must have something to share. If either of these conditions are lacking, all of the ideas and dictionaries in the world won’t help. Due to circumstances beyond my control, the past year has brought lack of mental focus and dullness of the heart. Friends have encouraged me to continue writing. The truth is, the desire to share simply had left me.

Today, perhaps, a turning point has been reached. A friend of ours is currently performing duties as a student teacher for 19 first graders. Often she regales us with stories of children that are funny, and sometimes sad. But the stories are never, ever dull. For much of the semester, her primary focus has been a little boy whose name is Keegan. He seems to be the possessor of one of the unfortunate alphabet conditions the teachers and psychologists use to define kids today. Whether its ADD, XYZ, or PDQ, the young man needs more attention than the average child. Since our friend, Shelby, has the time, she has been assigned to aid Keegan in his quest for knowledge. He is an intelligent boy, yet he has extreme difficulty focusing on task. The flight of a bird past his window, or the movement of a fellow classmate distracts him. As a result he sometimes is exiled to a private room in the school’s basement where resides a device known in first grade nomenclature as “the boring chair.” Now this is not intended as punishment, but as a way to avoid distraction and help concentrate on his school work. Yet, you can sympathize with the first grade definition of this circumstance being a “boring chair.” Keegan has a vivid imagination, which he is more than willing to share with those around him. His observations on life are spontaneous and unrehearsed. Although Shelby is single, Keegan seem to find it easier to call her Mrs. Sams. In one of their early encounters, he said, “As you know, Mrs. Sams, Tommy took my invisible macaroni and cheese and put it on his mashed potatoes.” He seems to be fascinated by invisibility as he often shares stories of invisible friends and invisible tumbleweeds. As to his preference in transportation, he states that he’s a “Chevy man.” His athletic prowess is revealed when he says “I’m a long-legged man in a butt-kickin’ contest.” He recently came to Shelby with a bloody finger saying, “Mrs. Sams! Mrs. Sams! I got bit by a chipmunk. It’s a chipmunk bite. Could you get a band-aid pweeze?” Just for your information, there are no chipmunks in the first grade. Whether out of the blue, from out of left field or another dimension, this is the thought that was in his little mind today:

It’s easy to mold; it’s fun to hold.
It’s Moon Sand, it’s out of this world!

Does that kid have a future in advertising, or not? Oh, to once again have the joy of an innocent and uncluttered mind. Keegan will never know it, but today, God used him to make me laugh and think of Moon Sand, if only for a little while. It would be wonderful if all little boys could keep their invisible friends and that the worst thing that would happen to them was bites from imaginary chipmunks. Oh, how we wish that Keegan and all little boys would have a life that’s easy to mold and fun to hold. But that only happens with Moon Sand.

"'Winging It" from Stan Smith

The Word of God

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Biography Information:
Mike Jacks was one of the realest people you would have ever met. He was very tenderhearted and not afraid to show it. His life was not an easy one. Yet, he was a man who sought the heart of God and daily strove to align his life with the precepts put forth in the Bible. He loved his family and was interested in history, WWII, and science fiction. These were frequently the subjects of his articles, yet they always went back to his first love, Jesus Christ.

Mike lived in Jamestown, Ohio with his wife, Zane, and their children, Lindsay (23) and Kirk (20). Mike and his family were founding members of Transformation Christian Church, a newly formed simple church.

Mike went home to be with the Lord on February 1, 2017
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