The Long Way Home

This morning after church we did something a little different. We had the privilege of seeing two baptisms and were on our way back from paying a quick visit to Pops. It had really been a great Sunday so far. There were some clouds on the horizon threatening a much-needed rain and hopefully a cool down. Fred and Lucy have been down with allergies the last few days so the prospect of clean air and that wonderful smell of freshness were just too good to pass up. We took the long way home.

Just like most small towns there are a million ways to get everywhere and everybody thinks their way is the quickest. It’s a rarity when you find yourself searching for the longest way to get home. So we chose the longest, most backwoods, far away path we could and headed straight into a thunderstorm. The kind of rain that would normally make us pull over, found us practically crusing along at 20mph with the windows cracked.

This got me thinking about all the other times we have taken the long way home.

Lucy and I met at a grocery store some five odd years before we ever went on our first date. The GiGi says she knew right away that were going to be married someday, but it was long time before that first trip to the movies together.

Though we got engaged eight months after our first date, the wedding didn’t happen for another four years. Filled with Christmas trees and white lights strung up every where, it was as if we had decided to get married in something out of a Disney movie. Except this time around Snow White decided to marry Dopey.

I may have mentioned before my grandfather is a preacher for the Church of Christ. The past 52 years he has been spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ all over the world. It took me 28 years to get baptized. It was one to the best days of my life, but some thought it would never happen.

The second you get married you are asked, “When are you having a baby?” It may as well be part of the vows “Do you Charlie promise to love, cherish, and obey? Do promise to be with her always through good times and bad? Do you swear to give your parents that grandchild they have been asking for every week for the past four and half years?”
At some point the question became one of desperation, “Are you going to a have a baby?” This year we finally answered the question only to be asked, “When is the next one going to be here?”

Life gets faster every day. Long gone are the weekends when just the two of us rented 10 movies and only got up to use the bathroom/grab a coke on the way back. It seems we are gone every night now visiting with family, showing off the baby. Nowadays we are lucky to be able to share a meal at the same time. If it’s one we cooked ourselves, then … well baby must have gone to bed early or we are eating really late. Then something unexpected happens. You find yourself with an afternoon that hasn’t been planned out to the second and those thunder claps begin to take on a different tone. What normally would be sounds of violence and natures fury, become invitations to witness the cleansing of the world around you. As we drove through that storm this afternoon, while others were desperately trying to escape the wind and rain…we just slowed down and enjoyed the ride. Like we’ve been doing for the past ten years…