October 31 – “Middle School Crisis”

We received a crisis text yesterday.  As we were enjoying breakfast (Well, Chris we enjoying breakfast.  I was done and had gone back to work at the computer), Chris began receiving texts from Cailyn and Nathan.  Seems a crisis of middle school proportions had struck.  Nathan and April were both at work.  Cailyn had just arrived at school when she realized to her everlasting chagrin that she had made a terrible mistake.  She thought it was Thursday, apparently a day when what she had on was completely acceptable.  But no.  It was in fact the dreaded Wednesday.  And on Wednesday one must be attired in nothing but acceptable school uniform.  She was horrified.  Imagine.  The only ten-year-old girl in the entire school who was not in uniform.  She called her Daddy in tears, too embarrassed to even enter the school’s front door.  What could she do?  Where could she hide?

Fortunately she has a Nana at home and a DadDad who also happens to be a pastor with an extremely flexible schedule.  Not to mention that it is part of his job to respond to crises of all kinds, even the middle school variety.  Chris gobbled down the rest of her eggs and we hurried over to their house to find some appropriate uniform-ish clothes.  Cailyn told Nana just where to look in her closet, so we went right there.  However … although the black jeans were there, we saw no shirt with the name of her school printed on it.  There were polos in there that were the right color, but none of them had the name on it.  Chris shot off a few texts, but by now Cailyn was in the building, a no-phone zone.  Nathan was apparently busy with some problem or other at the plant.  April still hadn’t answered the first text, so she was no doubt caring for a patient in the ER.  Nana and DadDad were on their own. 

We searched through drawers and in the dirty clothes pile and in the bathroom.  Still nothing.  We grabbed the pants and one of the polos and headed downstairs.  One final place to look … the laundry room.  Nothing amongst the folded clothes on top.  Ah, more clothes in the dryer.  I rummaged through them until … success.  I found a t-shirt with “Austin Middle School” clearly printed on it.  We added it to our pile and headed for the school.  As we pulled in and parked, a text came from Nathan that the polo shirts were acceptable.  We went with that, holding on to the t-shirt for later use.  The front desk lady was kind and understanding.  She knew right where Cailyn would be, so all we had to do was put a name tag on the clothes and entrust them to her.  Mission accomplished.

About thirty minutes or so after we got home, Chris received another text.  This one from April.  “Cailyn can wear a polo.  Does she need another shirt?  I don’t know what’s going on!”  Chris assured her all was well, and the shirt crisis had been narrowly averted.  Oh, and that afternoon, around 3:45, Chris got one final text.  From Cailyn.  “Thanks, Nana.”

Romans 1:17 says, “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed – a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’”

Father, would you watch over the bikers who are headed into town this weekend?  Oh, and the youngsters going trick-or-treating as well.  Amen.