Joshua’s
family has been here for a little breather over Spring Break. Yeah.
He didn’t get a breather or a break.
From the time they pulled up into the driveway he has been either on his
iPad checking health department notifications or on his phone with even more
critical issues to confront. What was
happening? Coronavirus, of course. COVID-19.
On
the one hand he was dealing with matters at his church back in Waco over
whether to cancel activities and which activities might make the cut, so to
speak. They have a rather large senior
adult population in the church, so it is of concern to them. On the other hand they have two mission teams
actually out on mission adventures. One
was in Utah. They received word that
quarantines and travel restrictions were being actively enforced, so they
scrambled to find an earlier flight home.
Once the travel agent stuff was complete, they picked up suitcases and
dragged them out to the local church’s van to head to the airport … only to
find the van booted. They had somehow
parked it in a no parking zone.
Fortunately, however, they were able to secure its release and actually
made their way home last night.
The
real missions adventure challenge, however, has not yet been 100%
rectified. They have a second missions
team on the field with their sister church in … Spain. Yep. THAT
Spain. The one that went from a zero
point of worry to a level four overnight.
They will be allowed back into our country (on the condition that they
impose a self-instituted 14 day quarantine) … if they can find a flight that is
coming back to the states. As of last
night they had located one leaving Frankfurt, Germany, tomorrow. Now all they have to do is get from Valencia,
Spain, to Frankfurt, Germany.
On
a lighter note, we started what we hope will NOT be a new tradition. We played the first ever Corona Bowl Cousins’
Football Game. All the cousins who are
old enough made their way outside and into the street for an exciting … nay,
uproaring … game of football. I think if
we had advertised a little we could have had a street full of fans as well. Hey, what else is there to do? All the other sporting events were canceled.
As
one might suspect on such an auspicious occasion, the game was going great …
until it wasn’t. Touchdown passes were
flying. Brennan was displaying his
blinding speed. Cailyn caught a pass,
and instead of running toward the goal line, she turned and chunked the ball as
far as she could. Amazing. Luke made a similar throw, but his found
Caleb’s midsection. Speaking of Caleb,
he played some outstanding free safety, breaking up passes even to his slightly
taller Dad. Micah and Zak ran
windsprints of pass patterns every play, and did a little jump and bump action
after every score. Jachin played the
whole game barefoot. Josiah probably had
more receptions than anybody.
Yes,
it was a wonderful Corona Bowl family gathering, in the midst of the big Corona
Virus Scare. Until …
Out
of the blue, a casualty was born. A
certain grizzled veteran of the gridiron had one final flash of brilliance
within him. With one touchdown grasp
already under his belt, this time he faded into the flat. The pass was on the money. And in an instant he had faked a lateral back
to Quarterback Micah, completely juking (or deke-ing) his nearly 30 years younger
defender completely out of his shoes. It
was breathtaking … in more ways than one.
All that remained was planting a foot, making a cut, avoiding a truck
bumper and four or five defenders, and a touchdown was in his grasp.
But
then …
Then
the old guy seemed to have his legs ripped out from under him. The unseen opponent sent me … er HIM … flying
through the air, not toward the goal line, but straight toward the unforgiving
pavement. The brunt of the fall was
taken by a bionic knee implant. Sparks
flew all across the playing field/street.
And the burning sparks from metal on asphalt seared a small portion of
his leg. The impact knocked a few holes
in the hapless receiver’s hand as well.
And on the ensuing roll, his arm twisted underneath his body at a horrendous
angle, as his athletic instincts transferred some of the brunt of the fall to his
shoulder. Fortunately the arm was
fine. The miraculous catch ended the
game on a victorious note, however. The
Corona Bowl 2020 was in the books. (P.S. Yes, I’m pretty sore this morning, but so far
I don’t seem too very “worse for wear”).
John
6:35 says, “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am
the bread of life. Whoever comes to me
will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’”
Father,
thank you for the time we are having with our kiddos. Will you please intervene in this whole
Coronavirus thing, though? Amen.
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