October 19 - “A.I. Clothes”

We had some good news today.  I mean besides affirming the great news that Jesus saves.  Not counting that one we had in fact, three “good newses.”  After church we went to Randall’s to pick up Mom’s prescriptions.  While we waited, our phone rang.  Not so unusual, but the voice on the other end was good news number one.  It was our contractor.  We consider him one of the best on the island, and we had called him hoping to get in line behind what we were sure was a long list of clients.  We hadn’t heard back from him, so we were researching other guys.  Well, come to find out, he wasn’t even living in his house.  The storm had damaged it.  He just happened to stop by and saw his answering machine was blinking with one message – ours.  And not only that, we were only the third people to call him, behind his girlfriend and her neighbor – who live right around the corner from us!  We meet with him tomorrow or Tuesday.  We have our contractor.  Good news.

We left Randall’s and decided to drive over and check out the house in Omega Bay we had been invited to stay in.  We couldn’t find it right away, so we called the family and asked for directions.  They told us how to get there and said they were on their way down from Friendswood to show us the inside.  It was a very nice house.  They were even nicer people.  They said we could stay as long as we needed to.  They even understood that it could take several months.  They encouraged us to bring Mom back to live there with us.  “She could use the elevator.  It’s perfect here for her.”  It was like they were trying to sell us the house rather than let us stay there as refugees.   We have a place to stay.  Good news.

The final good news actually happened last night.  Nathan and April came over and surprised us with some A.I. clothes.  That’s “After Ike.”  They knew Chris was washing the stuff we had salvaged over and over to get the smell out, and April was gong to have no more of that.  She insisted that we needed new clothes, not just hand-me-downs and inherently stink ones.  They found a huge sale, and the rest is A.I. clothing history. 

I was proud of my new clothes.  A long-sleeved shirt that said, “Feel the Softness.”  Now, how could you not like a shirt that said “Feel the softness”?  A really nice polo shirt, some slacks, and a jacket-shirt for when it gets colder.  I was ready to show them off at church.  That’s what you do, right? 

Well this morning I pulled on the polo and the new slacks and my nikes and I was ready for action.  We got to church and did the last-minute cleaning walk-through, spot-mopping, adding more chairs, getting the trash out.  And I was very careful all the while.  Couldn’t get my new duds messed up before anyone saw them.  Finally, with my cup of coffee I had brought from home, I sat down at the computer to put in a CD.  And Wham!  Spilled coffee all over my brand new A.I. slacks.  Aargh!  The computer was fine.  Missed it completely.  Just me and the floor.

I got a towel and dried up the floor easy enough.  Then I looked at my pants.  Total right knee involvement, with complications traveling around to the back side.  I did what any self-respecting husband would do.  I called out to my wife for help.  She came over, surveyed the situation, and in her best businesslike, trying-not-to-sound-too-much-like-mommy voice, she said, “Wet washcloth – and Blot it.”  Like I would know why I should blot it, or even exactly what “blot it” means.  What would happen if I rubbed it?  I blotted.  And all the while, I thought, “Well, the pants are tan.  At least the coffee’ll sort of match when it dries, won’t it?”

And once again, breaking into my whining, came that still, not–so-small voice of God saying, “Hey!  Get off the clothes thing!  We have some work to do here, and it’s not about what you wear on the outside.  It’s about who you host on the inside.  That’s some good news.”  Oh. 

Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession — to the praise of his glory.”

 Father, thanks for the contractor.  Thanks for the place to stay.  Thanks for the new clothes.  And thanks for the reminder about the Holy Spirit in me.  Thank you for washing us out of the boat.  Now we have to walk on water (trust you) - or drown (in depression, despair, or doubt).  Amen.