August 18 – “Surprise”

Well, that was a surprise.  On me.  Totally. 

Yesterday Josh and Christi and their boys took me and Chris and Mom out to Saltgrass Steakhouse for our big combined birthday celebration meal.  Great food.  Even greater company.  On the way home I texted Nathan to see if he was going to be able to swing by and see Josh before they had to head home to San Antonio.  He responded that they would come by for a few minutes.  Little did I know …

When we arrived at the house I helped Mom out of the car and went over to unlock the front door.  I smelled the distinctive odor of Mexican food, so as the front door opened, I reflexively looked back across the street to see what our neighbors might be cooking.  Nothing evident, so I turned back to the door and saw … black and yellow streamers hanging from the ceiling, balloons flying toward me, and tiny little human bodies jumping up and down.  I heard varying decibels of squeals and laughs amidst the occasionally clear strains of “Happy birthday” and “Surprise.”  I stepped inside to see streamers and balloons hanging from, well, everywhere.  A giant “Happy Birthday” poster covered the doors to the back yard.  On the table was an assortment of baseball caps surrounding a cake decorated with a baseball theme that read “Happy Birthday Kelley and Chris.”  I found out later that the wording was a nod to her participation in the whole scheme.  She knew about it all along.  Each of the grandchildren had written or drawn a picture for me depicting some fun time we have had together.  Over on the serving bar was an array of Mexican food (which, by the way, I did sample, but not until much later.  I was still full from our decoy lunch).  Oh, and Nathan had indeed “come by for a few minutes.” 

Over the course of the afternoon I got texts and emails and FaceBook messages as well as in person visitors from the different areas of our life.  Church.    Fire department.  Basketball (Perhaps the biggest surprise.  Great to see Cordy, one of the guys I used to coach, and his dad). And of course family.  All of our kids and grandkids were there in one place at the same time.  As I said before, that was the best birthday gift Chris could ever get.  Thank you to our kids for getting this set up and to everyone who came by or sent us good wishes.  It was … a good day.

Psalms 105:5-7 says, “Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, O descendants of Abraham his servant, O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.  He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.”

Father, what more can I say but thank you again?  Amen.