Phone calls on Father's Day

In the afternoon on Father's Day, my cell phone was in my pocket, but I forgot I had turned it off.

We were out working in the garden so we didn't bother with the house phone when it rang.

It was drizzling. I was putting down landscape fabric and then hauling pine needles to place on top. Valerie was weeding near the raspberry bushes. The drizzle was ideal for what we were doing; better than working under a hot sun. The tap-tap-taps on the brim of my hat, and getting slowly wet all over, made me feel closer to nature.

"You should get the phone," she said. "Why?" "Your sons might call on Father's Day." "If they call, they'll call my cell." "I don't know about that." "I do." I was privately amazed she still thought young people would call on a land line. Gosh, get with the times man.

Later, she came back from taking a break in the house. "Mr. Frantz passed away." Mr. Frantz is her brother-in-law's father.

The tap-tap-taps on the brim of my hat made me feel closer to nature. The wet pine needles. The musty earth. The cycles of nature. The dust from whence we came.

"And turn your cell phone on because Josh called."

Good grief, my cell phone was turned off. I felt mildly sheepish. Sheep-ish.

Of course there was a message on it. It was Andrew, so I called him back. He had flown from LA to Houston; he and Lydia were deciding on engagement rings. "Did your books come?" Andrew asked.

For Father's day, I had asked for Volumes 6 and 7 of Hans Urs von Balthasar's The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics.

"Not yet. Hey it's not every dad who'd ask for obscure theology books for Father's Day."

"Yea, but you're one of a kind," Andrew said.

The rain got more intense but I was one cartload of pine needles away from covering the area. (Is that like one knife short of a full set in my drawer?). The tap-tap-taps on the brim of my hat made me feel closer to nature.

Josh calls back from Seattle. The next day he starts his job painting houses. "You know where to go?" I asked. "I call my boss after I talk to you." "You got that Garmin nuvi all set up?" I asked. "Yes its working fine." "If that summer job doesn't work out, you know where you can come," I said.

"I know exactly where I can come," he said. "Love you Dad."

Later I talk to Jeremy; he had called earlier too. He and Ivy bought a car. They were driving it home from the Tri-Cities. He told me I was a great dad. I said I didn't know about that, but I have great kids. He said even if I didn't believe I was a great dad, I was.

That morning on Father's day, I spoke at church on Jesus' prayer for Peter: I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. I spoke about the faith that did not fail Peter, and would not fail us.

Before I spoke, I had turned my cell phone off.

Logos2Go

Luke 22.31 "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

1 Peter 1.5 ... who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time ...

Jude 1.3 ... when I gave all diligence to write to you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write to you, and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.