Brownies

I came home from work and lo! half my deck was cleaned off. I went upstairs and said to my folks, "It looks like some brownies came and cleaned half my deck for me while I was at work." My mom pointed at my dad and said, "There's the big brownie." Very nice.

Brownies are also the name of junior Girl Scouts. I was a Brownie in 2nd and 3rd grade, but I did not become a Girl Scout in 4th grade. That's because starting in 4th grade we lived in places where we could attend Christian Reformed churches, so I was a Calvinette. Really. Not too long ago, the denomination phased out the name Calvinette and introduced the name GEMS (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior).

I liked being a Calvinette, although my memories of it are a little vague all these decades later. I remember in Lynden in the 4th grade wearing a navy blue skirt with a light blue blouse and the blue neck scarf where one displayed one's badges. I don't think we kept wearing the uniform all the later years. I remember doing 2-strand and 4-strand braiding, which I have never done again--it is a lost skill to me. I liked the feeling of belonging when I went to Calvinettes, and I liked that it was for fun, not as stressful as catechism, when you were supposed to have memorized answers to questions and I never had. I had to sit somewhere in the middle of the group so that when the teacher started at one end or corner to ask each kid a question, I could count heads and try to figure out what question I'd get and try to memorize the answer before it was my turn.

These were textbooks with weekly lessons and 4-5 questions at the end with 2-3 sentence answers for memorizing before class. They were not THE Catechism (the Heidelberg Catechism) but child- and youth-geared lessons that no doubt reflected the doctrine of our church confessions (the catechism, the Canons of Dort, and the Belgic Confession).

Everybody's favorite part of the Heidelberg Catechism is Question and Answer 1:

Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my own,
but belong—
body and soul,
in life and in death—
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,
and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.
He also watches over me in such a way
that not a hair can fall from my head
without the will of my Father in heaven:
in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him,
Christ, by his Holy Spirit,
assures me of eternal life
and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready
from now on to live for him.

Our Presbyterian brothers and sisters have a good opening to their catechism--The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question and Answer 1:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

You can't beat that with a stick.