October 10 – “Football and a fumble”

Saturday we drove up to Texas to watch Josiah play a flag football game.  Six-year-olds are pretty interesting to watch when it comes to such a complicated game of offensive plays and defensive strategies.  About the time the defense would finally realize where they were supposed to stand, they realized that the offense had already hiked the ball and the kid was running for a touchdown.  And then on offense one little quarterback knew he was supposed to hand off to somebody, so he turned around and held the ball out.  Nobody came.  And nobody came.  He was promptly surrounded by defenders, but there is a rule in the league that you can’t pull the quarterback’s flag.  You can’t really do anything until he hands off or makes a pass.  So they waited.  Finally the halfback realized he was the one who was supposed to get the ball, so he walked up and took it from the quarterback’s hands.  And before he could take one step everybody’s flag was pulled, quarterback’s, halfback’s, even a few defenders’.  I think the other team won, but the kids really didn’t care.  They got a bottle of Gatorade and a great snack.  Life doesn’t get much better than that for a six-year-old boy.  

After the game we made a stop at Lifeway Book Store to get some New Testaments for our Halloween Bible Give-Away.  And then it was back onto the Island for a quick WalMart stop.  On the way home from there we got a call from some old friends from basketball days who were in town for the weekend.  They were ready for some lunch, so we made plans to meet them at Shrimp N Stuff.  Just as we were leaving the house, though, Chris remembered that we were supposed to have Cailyn for the afternoon and evening while both her parents worked.  She texted Nathan and April to see if that was still on, since they often swap days on their schedules.  Nathan answered immediately that she was off.  April followed with, “Well, I THOUGHT I was supposed to be off.”  Nathan replied, “WHAT?”  And thus ensued an interchange between the two of them.  Apparently someone had, in the vernacular of a college football Saturday afternoon, fumbled the ball.  April was under the impression that she had taken the day off to get ready for her trip to Corpus Christi this week to care for her grandmother after surgery.  Someone called her from work, however, wondering where she was.  She was in the process of trying to get things straightened out.  So we headed on to lunch.  It was good catching up with Mike and Teri about our respective kids’ lives.  While we talked Chris got another text from April.  She did have to go into work after all, so she was going to bring Cailyn to us at the restaurant.  Ah, the trials of young parenthood. 

2 Corinthians 10:3 says, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.”

Father, thank you for the chances we have to be with our grandkids every so often.  They are amazing.  Amen.