May 21 – “I thought about my Dad”

I thought about my Dad today.  It was in an unusual situation to do that.  No one asked me about him, and I wasn't looking at pictures or anything.  I was in the back yard.    When I got back from the school this morning, I expected to get ready and head for Houston to see Chris' Mom.  But Chris was working in the front flower bed.  The first thing she said to me was, "I couldn't get the lawn mower started."  That combination told me that she wanted to get the yard mowed before she went to Houston.  So I changed clothes and … mowed the grass.  She was still hard at work, so I went into the back yard and started back laying the concrete blocks down the side of the house.  After about an hour of leveling ground, picking up one block at a time, knocking off the old mortar and dirt so the sides were straight again (which led to breaking the garden tool I was using.  I had to track down a replacement.  Much fun, though.  I found a hatchet.), laying the block in place, stepping back to see if it was passably level in relationship to the ones around it, and then doing the whole thing over again, I began to get frustrated at how long it was taking.  I immediately figured out that the reason it took so long was that I could only carry one block at a time.  If I could get three at once, I could move a lot faster.  I tried it.  I couldn't pick up three.  Or two.  So I went back to one.  Slow and as steady as I could in the Galveston heat.    And that's when I thought about Dad.  I remembered watching him do yard work and outdoor projects when I was a kid.  And I remembered him always moving slowly.  Very slowly.  And steady.  He could go on and on for hours at a time.  He never seemed rushed or out of sorts.  And he never carried anything really big or heavy by himself.  At least not that I remembered seeing.  I saw a very clear picture of him in my mind.  Carrying concrete blocks.  One at a time.  And it finally dawned on me.  I understood.  I have become my Father.  And it's not so bad.   1 John 3:1 says, "How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"   Father, thanks for the memory of my Dad today.  I miss him.  Amen.