Piper Cubs, War Paint, Eighteen-Wheelers, and Everything Else
Thursday, January 12, 2006
[7:59am] On the way to work that morning, Collette and OLeif discussed the Tabletalk devotional, trailing off onto subjects of the world having been divided (physically (in the splitting of the continents) or culturally, or both!) at the birth of Peleg, the various ethnicities perhaps being distinguished upon the execution of Babel, the Garden of Eden, and other wonders. Upon nearing the church office, they both saw the “Knights of Columbus” sign on the side of the road which currently read:
Welcome
Christian Foods
OLeif began randomly thinking of what might constitute as a Christian food:
“Divine chocolate…,” he mused. “Goldfish.”
“Goldfish?”
“Ichthus.”
“Oh, goldfish crackers…”
“Bread and wine…”
And it struck Collette that morning, in her usual thoughts and prayers, out of the blue, that they had forgotten their Christmas Eve walk with Dad that year. Of course, there had been no snow as there seemed to have been plenty of beautiful moon-lit white drifts in past years… But Collette missed it and thought that she would ask if they could all walk there during the next snow. Hadn’t it been 71 degrees that past Sunday afternoon? But some of the bitterest snows St. Louis had ever seen came as late as April – there were still three months of hope.
Meanwhile, Joe sent her a link while she was at work of an amazing silver fossil watch whose dial switched from deepest red to black – very cool. And, Jimmy had shared with the junior high youth in the barn the previous evening that he had witnessed an unusual sight on Tuesday. It had been raining, the roads were slick, particularly on the winding stretch of N. He had just been getting out of his car when he saw crashing behind him – telephone poles and wires. And, as if in a dream (he said), he saw an eighteen-wheeler skidding on its side across the church parking lot. Jimmy hurried over as the paramedics came to the scene and found that the 60-something year old gentleman inside was not hurt. Collette often felt uncomfortable saying “Praise God,” in public (thinking it might make her appear fake in her sincerity of usage of the phrase). However, she knew that very likely the man was at least thinking it to himself, upon exiting the truck cab by hoisting himself up on the steering wheel to climb through the door.
And after sharing the piece of news, there was a time of prayer and a game of trashcan football. Rose had also come along for the evening, and when Joe came in during the middle of the game to pick her up (after work), he managed to throw some amazingly fast shots and made some incredible leaps to catch the nerf ball. Collette was impressed – she had never before seen her brother play quite like that.
[9:40am] It was around 9:25 that morning, that Ivy received a phone call from Georgia and Phineas Owen. His and Georgia’s son, Ephesus, had just passed away that morning in San Diego. With Georgia and Phineas both being 81, it was hard to imagine that this was their second child to have passed away before their own time had come. Collette prayed for them that morning – the grief through which they must be passing… Once again, that age-old reminder of life, fleeting. It was a day of general sticky and saddening problems in the church – to be expected – all humans fallible, terrible fallible.
[13:17pm] It was later that morning that Fran, Judah, and Rosemary decided to congregate in Ivy’s and Collette’s office (which really wasn’t an office, but open to whomever happened to breeze). They were all discussing various mission trips. Of snakes in Egypt, vipers in Greece, several ladies to go to Switzerland that coming fall from Grace, the Popples going off to Peru for Christmas in a year, Fran in the Andes Mountains and jungle huts coming through Chile…
“Well,” Rosemary was saying, “I’m hoping that Susie will know enough Spanish by then to help us get by. Four years of Spanish by then…”
“Four years of high school Spanish is like, nothing,” Judah said, laughing.
“I know – but at least she’ll be able to say, ‘No comprende,’ which isn’t actually Spanish anyway…”
“Or ‘Buzz-off-e’,” Fran said, most wittingly.
Then he went on to talk about his own experience in Peru, being greeted by the highlander Indians:
“And we got out of that Piper Cub, saw those Indians in war paint, spears, bows and arrows, and I was thinking more like, ‘Let’s get out of here… Hubba hubba!”
[14:20pm] Later that afternoon, OLeif send Collette a link from BBC news which produced an article on the latest from Taiwan: glow-in-the-dark pigs, real live green oinklets:
“The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from jellyfish into a normal pig embryo,” the article read.
And, the congregational meeting packets somehow managed to be printed in maudi gras colors, as Collette duly noted – (color coded for ease).
“On that night, Glory came into history.”
– Speaking of Christmas (2 Rivers Church)