time for this one to come home

Mostly people reading this will be too young to remember Tooter Turtle. But I remember him. And I've been thinking about him lately.

Tooter Turtle came from a TV cartoon show in the 60's. He lived in the forest, but was always wanting to go somewhere else or be someone else. So his pal Mr. Wizard the Lizard would wave his magic wand and send Tooter Turtle wherever he wanted to go. Like, to the dinosaur days as a caveman, to the moon as an astronaut, whatever. And always Tooter Turtle would get into trouble. So he would call out the familiar cry to be saved: "Help me Mr. Wizard!"

And then Mr. Wizard, being a kindly old lizard with infinite patience, would say the magic words:

"Drizzle, drazzle, dradle, drone
Time for this one to come home."

This part was always my favorite. I still saw it in my mind's eye even before I found the picture on the internet (and I was quite excited to see that picture, let me tell you--maybe a little too excited, even). Tooter Turtle would spin round and round, stars and swirls bringing him back to his home, where he belonged.

When he landed, a bit dazed, back in the lizard's house, Mr. Wizard always gave him a little lecture about being who you are and there's no place like home and all that. He would end it with this:

"Be what you is and not what you is not!
Folks that is what they is, is the happiest lot!"

Yeah. Good stuff.

So lately I have been--on occasion--feeling like I am spinning and swirling. A little bit like Tooter Turtle. Without the hat.

One day recently when I got that picture in my head of myself swirling around, I remembered (oddly) those words from my childhood: "Time for this one to come home."

So I sat there and thought about it for a while, and I realized that when I get like that, I am not home. Home to me is Jesus, centered in Him and focused on Him. Much like Tooter Turtle, I get in to a lot of trouble when I am away from Him. Sometimes it's even quite scary to my little turtle heart.

But when I call out to Jesus He is always there to bring me back on in. And I am really grateful for that.

So yeah. I just wanted to share that.

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