Thursday’s Thirst

If my math is correct, today is Season Opener #123 for the Detroit Tigers.  Our son, Joel, and I, though we are members of the “elite” 1901 Society, will not be there … because the Tigers’ Season Opener this year is in Tampa Bay.  One might say that we planned our return from Florida a week or two early.  However, one week from today is the Home Opener … and the plan is that I will be there with our other son, Matthew.

This past Sunday, on the way out of worship, a visitor said to me, “There sure is a lot of love in this place.”  My reply was something like, “Yes, there certainly is.”  I could have gone on to say, “And my, how great it is to see it being sent in so many different directions by so many different people.”  By the end of the day, my description of it would be “overwhelming.”

“Yesterday” (the song) was released by the Beatles in 1965.  While today I am thinking about many “yesterdays”, I am not really singing the lyrics to this song.  “Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.  Now it looks as though they’re here to stay.  Oh, I believe in yesterday,” is what McCartney wrote as the beginning of the song.  Rather than focusing upon regrets (thankfully “his grace is sufficient for me” too – not just St. Paul), I am more thinking about the blessings of yesterday – while at the same time anticipating the additional new ones that tomorrow will bring.

So, which is it?  Is it winding things up or is it winding things down?  As I am writing this, I am coming to the conclusion that it is a combination of the two – or at least I hope so.  Maybe it’s similar to watches in the “pre-battery” days.  You wound them up and then they would wind down. … (on a side note, I wonder how many people who laugh at the electrification of vehicles still wear a windup watch that was made in Switzerland?)

At some point early in the pandemic Monica and I binge-watched a series on Netflix called “Heartland”.  We think it was my brother and his late wife who introduced us to it.  To this day we are still hooked.  We are currently recording and watching season 16!  The previous seasons we have watched multiple times.  However, I must warn you – suspense, bloodshed, and similar scenarios are not a part of it (so it might not be for you).

Other than a white – and windy – Christmas, the Detroit area has been pretty much snow-free for the first third of our winter.  That was, until yesterday.  The forecast when I went to bed on Tuesday was for the snow to start around 8:00 a.m., but when I opened the garage door at 6:00 a.m. it had already been snowing for 10-15 minutes.

With retirement a month from today, I am reflecting back on some of the formative times when the narrative began.  Monica and I grew up in the same church and met when the three one-room schools were consolidated into the new building.  It was in January.  She was in the fourth grade, and I was in the fifth.

No, I am not talking about a bank … that would be Fifth Third – whatever that means. And I am not even talking about first-time experiences for me. I am talking about five different individuals who all reached out to STL for the first time this past week! How exciting – and, since they reached out in three different ways, we probably could add a third to this fifth!

There are two psalms that I regularly use in my morning devotions.  The verses I recite almost daily come from David after the prophet Nathan confronted him regarding Bathsheba.

Tuesday was all set to be a trial run for February 21.  After a sequence of very busy days, the plan was for me to be home alone with nothing to do – except to relax, recover, and recuperate.  In a similar manner, I have been telling people my “plan” is to work very hard until February 19, then rest very seriously for 3 months, and after that see what God has in mind.  Tuesday’s “trial run” has probably prepared me for those months even more than I had hoped.