Lima (legume, not Peruvian city)

Our older daughter was very sad when I left to go to young men's tonight - not wanting to let go of hugging me, crying, etc. My fabulous wifey cheered her up and my daughter was once again ok with me leaving. But she did request a story about ... a lima bean. I told her she'd be asleep by the time I got back but that I'd write it down for her.

Once upon a time there was a lima bean named Louise. She was a good bean. She visited with her friends and neighbors. She brought them nice buckets of water for their roots or adjusted the mirrors on their lawns to shine more or less light on them depending on how hot it was outside. But sometimes Louise felt like there was something more out there that she should be doing. She knew that most beans were destined to be eaten right up by people or animals. She tried to envision herself being happy turned into a bowl of crisp steamed beans, or stir fried, or whatever else people do with lima beans. But none of those felt quite right. Maybe she would be featured as the secret ingredient for Iron Chef and somehow be turned into a fabulous appetizer, main dish, and dessert in less than an hour. Frankly, she didn't believe that was possible. But even if it was, it still didn't feel like her DESTINY.

Everyone has a destiny. Our destiny is to become fully awesome through the grace of our Savior and return to live with God in eternal families. The destiny of a mouse is to squeak and eat cheese and wipe out parts of Europe in the 1300s. And while the destiny of a lima bean is usually to be hidden under the table by children who don't want to eat them (thus feeding the population of mice in the world), the destiny of this particular lima bean was different.

One day Louise was walking around when suddenly a very hungry mouse came running into the lima bean garden village. The mouse was allergic to cheese, which made life very hard. It was even willing to eat lima beans. And it intended to gobble them all right up.

Knock knock Louise. Who's there? Your DESTINY!

Louise jumped out and threw the bucket of water on the mouse's head. Then she yelled out "Welcome to our fancy day spa! It's your lucky day, you get a shampoo and trim and a manicure for free as part of our grand opening celebration. Sit right down, that's a good mouse. Ok, now you keep your eyes closed so I can rub in the shampoo. Just one moment." She talked and talked while she sneakily tied up the mouse pretending it was for the manicure. When the mouse opened its eyes, it was very confused. Now it was both very hungry and wet and tied up. So it said "Um, thank you for the free spa services, but I seem to be tied up and can't nibble on anything to fill up my stomach."

Fortunately, Louise was a very smart lima bean. She knew that it was not time for her village to be destroyed by the mouse. But she also knew that there were several houses in the neighborhood that insisted on trying to feed lima beans to small children. And those children needed someone to help them. What's more, once the lima beans were cooked, they needed to be eaten by someone. If they couldn't be eaten by adults and wouldn't be eaten by children, they might as well be eaten by a mouse allergic to cheese. So Louise drew a very nice map for the mouse and explained which nights her new mouse friend would be most welcome.

So in the end, Louise became a great protector of her village while still helping deserving children and rodents. She lived to a very old age and became leathery and dry and green like all good old lima beans. Eventually she was found by a young artist who put her in a big museum. And to this day, whenever children walk by, Louise tells them how to save their lima beans for her friendly mouse instead of smashing them into their hair or pockets or the furniture. Truly, the world is a better place because of that heroic bean.