January 12 – “Neal”

The family came by today.  We were at the house trying to finish scraping the floor.  Nathan called and said MeeMaw wanted to take a ride.  They decided to come to Galveston and grab some food from Sonic.  He offered to pick up some lunch for us as well.  Hard to pass up a cherry limeade slush.  While we waited for them get there, Christina showed up with Jachin and Micah.  Micah especially wanted to see his Nana.  Seems that while we were in Mansfield, Christina told him that Nana was holding Baby Caleb.  He answered, "Nana hold me."  I guess he just wanted to follow up on that.  Nathan and April and Mom soon arrived, and we all sat outside in the front yard and ate our burgers and tater tots.  Quite the family picnic.  And for some reason it didn't feel anything like it did back when we first came back.    Our delivery of lumber arrived this morning.  That was a pretty exciting event.  He dumped it in the driveway.  Jachin and Micah and Nathan helped me move it into the garage.  Now all we need are some framers who know what to do with it.   Our neighbor Neal came by again to check on how we were doing.  Chris told him we were trying to finish scraping the floor because April might have her baby any time.  Neal threw up his hands and said, "Oh!  We have to get this done, then.  That baby is much more important than anything else right now."  Now Neal is well up in years – at least in his seventies.  But he took the scraper from Chris and started in.  We wondered how we could keep him from hurting himself.  Didn't take him long to get a bit discouraged, though.  The glue was pretty tough in places.  Then all of a sudden, he said, "I'll be back.  I'm going to get my sledge hammer."  Now we wondered how we could keep him from hurting our foundation.  We both pictured one of those big old rock-busting, ax-like instruments best left in the hands of firefighters and shackled prisoners.  Instead he returned with a hammer only slightly larger than the one we used to pull our nails.  And he wielded it well for the short time he spent with us.  Neal has a great heart of service.   2 Corinthians 9:12-13 says, "This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God."       Father, thank you for Neal.  Please give him your protection.  Amen.