(note from Melanie - We have a chalkboard in our hallway by the stairs, one we each walk by each day many times. When Steve found out he had cancer, he wrote in large letters - WE BELIEVE IN PURPLE CRAYONS. It is still there, written in chalk. None of us have dared to erase it or have felt the need to. I always wonder if the children even see it any more. But here is our family's first story of the purple crayon and why it carries meaning for us.)
It was one of the earlier events at the beginning of our hard years. I was still the pastor at RMC, and this was Colin's difficult season...no one knew yet that he had diabetes. Everyone knew that tense things were happening.
I got a call from Melanie to come help. I came to the house and at first I sat with Colin for a bit. But it was obvious that Anna Claire was feeling it all, and she and I sat on the front steps to talk. She had other things going on besides the family, and she was overwhelmed and very sad.
And there I was, trying to be a pastor, giving some sort of encouraging words, when she said, "It's like Harold and the Purple Crayon." I said, "Huh?" (I may have said something like "Why of course it is", even though I had no idea what she was talking about.)
She proceeded to tell me the story of a boy who could use his magic purple crayon to draw his was out of or through trouble. (I still haven't read it- which is a sin.) Once again, one of these fine young women ended up being my pastor.
I don't know if she knows, but that little story was my purple crayon. As I entered my own season of trouble, her picture helped frame the way I began to pray. It fell together with the idea that Jesus "makes a way where there is no way", and literally helped me to survive my worst moments. (I can picture where I was standing, on a late night walk on Highland Avenue, when the story became my prayer, and I could see a door where there hadn't been one before.)
So I will always remember that as the time a 14 year old girl told me a story about a little boy and a crayon, and helped me not be afraid.