December 12 – “Lauren and Chris and Big Dolly”

Yesterday my plan was to work here on the trusty computer all day while Chris spent the day at the church helping decorate for Bethlehem Street Market coming up Saturday.  After all we spent a lot of time up there already this week cleaning and arranging stuff.  And I do have a sermon to teach come Sunday.  Well, that was working well for a little while.  Right up until Chris called and said they really needed ceiling tiles and light bulbs.  And the only place on the Island that had them was … yep.  Home Depot.  And so the battle continues …

I had the truck, so I closed up shop and headed out.  Found the tiles right away.  I had a photo on my phone of the package they were supposed to come in.  So I dragged two of those onto my cart and headed over to the light bulbs.  This one was kind of an unknown.  All I knew about these was that the ones we use are made by Phillips.  Ah, but Phillips is apparently the pre-eminent maker of institutional light bulbs … of all sizes.  I made a best guess and grabbed a few boxes of them. 

With the help of Lauren and Chris and Big Dolly, we managed to get the stuff up the ramp.  As luck would have it, the tiles fit perfectly.  We even had a guy there who was waiting to install them.  The bulbs, however, were a different story.  They were not even close to the same size.  Ours were miniscule compared to the wide body on the ones we got.  OK.  The ones I got.  So you know what that means, don’t you?  Another trip to Home Depot.  Can’t wait.

We worked for another hour or two there at the church.  Chris and Lauren assigned all the booths to vendors who have turned in applications.  We placed tables and chairs in the spaces for those who requested them.  The ladies who came up to decorate trees did a bang-up job.  There are now Christmas trees all over the two buildings.  For the ones still around at lunch time we ran over to Way West Grill and got everybody a sample of their daily special … Frito Pie.  Good stuff.  Jim was even around by that time, working on the outside lights.  He joined us for lunch.

We finally started home, and the plan was to drop off Chris’ car and return the errant light bulbs to Home Depot.  We pulled up at the house and I made a discovery.  I didn’t have the receipt.  Apparently force of habit led me to drop it off in the bin at church when I got there.  So sad.  No return trip to Home Depot.  The “encounter” will have to wait another day.

Revelation 7:9 says, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.  They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”

Father, please bless the efforts of those folks who worked at the church yesterday.  And be with us in this event on Saturday.  We want it to honor you.  Amen.