June 19 – “My Dad’s Day”

Pretty good Father’s Day for this old guy yesterday.  Started out when we got to church and I received a video text from Cailyn.  It was something she was watching on TV that she took a video of.  At first it seemed quite odd.  The caption she wrote was, “Here is something that Freddy would not be able to do.”  OK.  She really likes our little dog Freddy, so I pushed play.  There was a man in his kitchen apparently working hard on preparing something.  A little dog slowly walked up behind him, paused for a second or two, and then suddenly leapt straight up into the air and took a nip of the guy’s rear end.  And in the background you could hear Cailyn laughing uncontrollably before a final guffawed, “Ouch.”  Now that was an entertaining way to start the day. 

Among the guests at Seaside were two families that mad the day special.  One was the daughter and her family of some really old friends of ours, Jack and Jamie.  Not that they are that old.  They are just a year or two younger than us.  They were in the youth group during my first stint as youth pastor many, many … many years ago.  Great to see Josh and Courtney and their kids again.  Especially when their little boy told me he really liked the Visual Verse.  And their little girl told me I was a cute boy.  They can come back any time.

The second family was a blast from the past as well.  Brandon was the young man there with his girl friend.  He towered over me, but that’s not so unusual.  Come to find out he had been in Josh’s youth group at South Oaks many years before.  But it was his Dad who almost ran up the aisle to greet me when they arrived.  He looked very familiar, but I couldn’t place him at all.  Finally he told me that he had been among the crews that helped rebuild our house after Hurricane Ike.  He did some sheetrocking and Brandon and Josh had spent some time breaking up concrete in the bathroom.  Apparently he had been looking forward to coming to church at Seaside ever since.  Talk about pressure. He said afterwards that he loved it, though.  We invited them to come by the house any time and see the finished product. 

The rest of the day was even better.  Nathan texted to set up a lunch.  We had to set it up for later since we had dinner on the grounds scheduled after church.  After my nap, Josh called so Luke could see who the mystery man would be who answered the phone.  Seems Luke was trying to figure out who his Dad’s Dad was.  I think he recognized my voice when I answered, but he was still not completely sure.  So Josh switched over to FaceTime.  Great expression of surprise and delight on his face.  Then Micah texted to invite us to tag along on their annual Father’s Day meal at Gringo’s, Kel’s favorite establishment.  Kel gave me a book about Galveston’s minor league baseball team of the 1930’s.  Yep.  Pretty good day.

James 1:19-20 says, “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

Father, thank you for my sons and all their kiddos.  Makes an old Dad proud.  Amen.