I spread them out
Across the floor.
An empty box,
There were no more.

I looked again,
It wasn’t there;
So what to do,
It’s just not fair.

Instructions plain,
No way to beat them.
If it’s broken,
You can not eat them.

These grownup rules,
Sometimes aren’t real.
I checked once more,
There was no seal!

When children are learning to talk, words that sound alike are often confusing. I remember sitting in church as a small child, singing, “He whispers sweet peas to me.” My ears were well trained because even today peace often sounds like peas to me.

Then there is the old story about the young boy whose Sunday school teacher asked him to recite all of the names of God that he knew. When he named off, “Andy”, she asked him where he got the idea that Andy was one of God’s names. He said that one of the songs that they sang in church about God said, “Andy walks with me, Andy talks with me, Andy tells me I am his own.”

In Animal Cookies, the little boy is obediently searching to see if the cookie shaped like a seal is broken, having misunderstood the label on the box. Even in our lives, misunderstandings can get us all worked up and over nothing!

This little boy had been taught he must always obey. He didn’t always understand the reason but he knew that it must be important.