July 2 – “Welcome Home”

Today was a huge day for everyone connected with the Pastor Kelley school of youth camp songwriting and singing.  That's right, folks.  Chris found me a new ukulele.  We went up to a guitar place in League City and picked it up, along with an electronic tuner – a necessity for someone who has no idea what it means to be in tune.  It's not as nice as the one that drowned, but it's definitely a uke.  And it definitely makes noise.  They didn't have a case, so I asked Kel if I could borrow his guitar case for camp.  Can't have this little baby injured on the road.    While we were there a horrible thing happened.  I fell in love.  The salesman, a master at his craft – picked up a tenor guitar.  It is about the size of a baritone uke, and it tunes the same way – only four strings.  The chords are the same as a uke, too.  And it was really pretty.  And then he started playing it.  Suddenly it was beautiful.  And then he let me strum it.  And I was in love.  The sound was amazing.  I noticed that Chris was holding on to the uke for dear life.  She had already seen the $420 price tag, so she had some idea where this little transaction was ultimately headed.  She was right.  But I sure would like to have that little guitar.  I started saving up for it on the way home.   And then tonight we had an emotional homecoming.  Our desktop computer that has been in intensive care with Ned from our church up in Temple, Texas, came home tonight.  He explained some of the problems it had: about a million cookies (hey, I like chocolate chips, OK?), and apparently it had been dropped at some point during transit.  The fan thing inside that cools off the processor was flopping around loose.  Its bracket had completely broken off.  So whenever the computer tried to start, it got hot within a matter of seconds and said, "Nope.  Not today."  It just so happened that one of their computers that was destined for the recycle bin (is that code for what I think it's code for?) had the exact same part and bracket that our computer had.  They reattached everything and after several tries managed to get it started in safe mode so they could then shut it down properly so they could then open it properly and start cleaning up the software mess.  They removed 6 gigs of junk.  That is a lot of junk.  After he left I started it up and the mouse wouldn't move.  Stuff was loading, but the mouse was stuck in the center of the screen.  I even moved the connector to the next USB port over (how's that for thinking in computerese?).  But it didn't work.  So I did the only thing I could do.  I called Ned.  He is sure patient with me.  He said they had had trouble with both of the bottom two USB ports (of course, those were the two I had tried).  He said to stick it in one of the ones closer to the top.  I did.  It worked fine.    The man's a genius.  I'm not.    2 Peter 3:11-13 says, "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.  That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness."   Father, I love my home.  I love little homecomings like we had today.  I look forward to that last one.  Amen.