October 2 – “Becoming my Dad”

Here’s an update on my Uncle Jerry.  The doctors found “multiple blood clots,” so they convinced him that he has to stay through at least Wednesday until they get a handle on that.  They found nothing that explains the cough, though, and that was the only thing that really got him to the ER in the first place.  He was kind of frustrated about it.  I told him the cough was just God getting his attention enough to get him to go get his leg checked out so they could treat the clots.  Hey, he’s worked in stranger ways than that.

I think I might be becoming my Dad.  At the very least I got to play my Dad in a little family mini-drama the other day.  As Nathan and April were getting into their car to leave after picking up Cailyn, I noticed April’s inspection sticker was due.  Now, my Dad was always the one to point out our “need” in that area when Chris and I were young upstarts – college students who thought they had the world by the tail, invulnerable, on top of everything.  It didn’t matter how early in the month it was, if that sticker was on its last legal month number, my Dad would notice and point it out.  He also used to wait until the last minute, usually as we were loading up the car to leave, to open the hood and do a quick check of the internal operations.  Of course he knew what he was looking for.  If I tried that my kids would think I was trying to play some kind of prank on them, though I have no idea how that idea might have arisen in their minds.

I do know how to read a calendar, however, so the inspection sticker and the registration sticker are fair game for me to observe as far as I’m concerned. 

Thankfully we had just taken our car in and it had a fresh new one, so I didn’t have to be a hypocrite in pointing it out.  Not that I said anything.  I followed Dad’s lead.  I just tapped on it.  Loudly.  Over and over and over again.  April noticed the noise first as she was strapping Cailyn into her car seat.  She glanced in my direction, ever so slightly, and purposefully continued her motherly duties.  I held my gaze in her direction for a long several seconds.  Finally a grin escaped from the stoicism she was struggling to maintain.  She commented, “This is your daughter-in-law trying to ignore you.”  Got her.  She knew.  My task was done.  Of course she also said, “I still have another month.”  Holding on to the artificial one month grace period, I see.  Good luck with that.

Psalms 33:7-8 says, “He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.   Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.”

Father, thank you for getting Uncle Jerry where he needs to be.  Kudos to your methodology.  You knew just what it would take to get his attention.  Amen.