Remember the old Campbell Soup commercial in which the punch line was, “Campbell Soup, Mmmmm Good.”  I thought about that old jingle the other day as I sat and listened to a cancer patient.  She was talking about how the treatments had begun to drag her down. As the months had gone by her blood count had begun to slip and her appetite and energy level had also gone down.  She knew she needed to keep her strength up but she was finding it harder and harder to find something to eat that appealed to her.

As she was feeling down about this turn of events she noticed her two year old grandson eating.  He was stuffing his food into his mouth until he looked like a squirrel with his mouth full of nuts.  And as he was stuffing he was saying mmmmm!  mmmmm!  Obviously he was enjoying his food immensely as only a little child can when food is not only something to fill your stomach it is also an experience to be treasured.  Grandma loves her little grandson and his zest for life.  He brightens her day just by being who he is and she looks forward to seeing him every time he comes to her house.  But on this day he also gave grandma an idea.

Grandma thought to herself maybe I will be able to eat something if I put my food in my mouth and  say mmmm! So she put her food into her mouth even though it didn’t taste like anything and said mmmm!  She found that it helped her to get more calories into her system.  It has become a crutch that is helping her to get through a rough patch in her life right now until the chemo treatments are finished and her taste buds regain their ability to make her food enjoyable again.

As I heard her share this story it made me realize we never know where our insight or inspiration is going to come from.  If we can keep our eyes and hearts open in our dark days and our down days we may find the word we need can come from the mouth of a little child.  We have all heard the expression “A Child shall lead them” and in this case it was a two year old who said, “mmmmmmm!”