A Moment in the Sun

Yesterday, I put my head down and got through my work as quickly as possible... I had somewhere big to be.

In the blazing hot sun, I rolled up my sleeves and put the top down on the Jeep... it's been rainy here lately. Then I took the tops off of the doors and stood back to ask the question, "Is that how Jordan will want it?"

Not too many moments later, I was en route. As I pulled into the parking lot, I caught several glances over my way from within the stolid silence of air conditioned automobiles, and I thought, "Man, it's good to have the Jeep!"

I sat in line with the vents blowing on me, the occasional breeze blowing either from the swamps or the lake, and the hot Louisiana sun reminded me that it was still summer time... but the sun felt good on my face and life was as it should have been.

A little while longer and the line began to move; and a few minutes later, it was almost my turn. I waved my traditional "hey ya" wave to the headmaster, and pulled into slot #4 where the object of my quest stood smiling for Daddy at the end of our first day of first grade. I shouted her name and gave her a big wave over the top of the wind shield as I pulled up to the respondent jumps and smiles and the "Hey, Daddy!" I've come to love.

As she got settled and started telling me all about the day, and as we waited for our turn to exit the parking lot, I snapped a picture of us. We looked at it together this morning before she left for day number two of our new year at school, and it said enough. That moment in the sun was simply perfect... and I don't think we get many of those, or maybe we just have to train ourselves not to miss them. They take great preparation, incredible amounts of inconvenient intentionality, and deserve to be savored as some of life's finest things... for that is just what they are.

In the end, only God knows when the high times like these will hit, and I'll trust Him with them. For my part, I just want to remember them all and be ready for the next one. Every hug, every Jeep ride, every snow cone, and every inconvenient interruption has the potential to become, and I don't want to miss a one of them! Even now as I write, JeeP has crawled up into my lap, and whispered back to me, "I wuv you too, Daddy!" and I stop to breath it in.

Yesterday was just a hot Southern Louisiana day in the middle of old swamp land... sweaty, steamy heat beating down on an open topped Jeep holding a crazy in love with his kids Daddy. It should have been miserable out there, but it was nothing short of a magical, incredible moment in the sun.

Now that's some of the good stuff in life!

Peace in Christ!

John