My Shepherdess

This title makes a lot more sense if you were at River Stone Sunday night. We're studying Genesis and when Jacob first sees Rachel, he sees her with sheep - something he's totally in to. Driscoll says it's like finding a woman who owns her own bass boat. Sunday I added like a woman who bungee jumps or rides motorcycles or climbs rocks, etc. The point of all this is that I had one of those moments with my bride long before she was my bride. I fully intended to talk about it Sunday night, but brain cramped it out. So, here it is.

When I met Holly, she was (and still very much is) this beautiful, intelligent, clean cut, prim and proper, small town girl. I knew I was attracted to her, but I was still checking out to see what all we had in common to see if this was going anywhere. After all, she was from the town where not only does every guy drive an old piece of crap pick up truck, but most are (or were) decked out with certain features of a cow's anatomy hanging from the spare tire area (I'm not unpacking it if you're missing it). She seemed different from the rest of the town, but I was unsure.

I was a total wanabee Christian rocker (if there is such a thing). The "Jesus Freak" album from DC Talk was new, and I was a big fan. At the time I drove a 1985 K-5 GMC Jimmy with 32.5" tires. It was large and so was the sound system. The most expensive Sony CD player you could buy in 1996 that fed some big fancy amp that pushed two 15" Kickers. I liked my music loud, I liked to sing along, I liked to bob my head to the beat, I was a huge dork. However, I thought that I was bad. My friends at the time were not bold enough to confront my posing - maybe because they were too ... maybe. Anyway, on the way home from our first date which was not a real date b/c it was a set-up, I decided to conduct a little test to see how this small town goody goody would react to a little rock-n-roll. Up with the DC Talk. To my surprise she knew every word to my favorite songs. She sang - loud - and really good by the way (not a surprise to anyone who hears her belt it out every week at church). Not only that, but that every so carefully brushed hair was soon flying back and forth as she banged her head. She says this is the moment when I fell in love with her, and I'm not sure about that ... BUT ... it was the moment that I was confident that this relationship was going places.

It may sound pretty insignificant, but when I saw that, I connected with my shepherdess. Our first real date was a few weeks later. You guessed it ... DC Talk concert under the stars at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion. It was as romantic as DC Talk music could be, and we had a great time. 7 months later we were engaged. A year and a half after that we were married. And to borrow from the romanticism of my forefather Jacob, I can honestly say that 10 years of working and doing life together seem like only a few days. I thank God for reminding me of this innocent time in our relationship where everything was new and I was more concerned with uncovering the mystery and godliness of this wonderful person than I was of my own selfish desires.

What God orderes he pays for, and He ordered me a prim and proper, clean cut, small town, rocker that was exactly what I needed to motivate me to become the man He created me to be.

That's all for now. Blessings to you.

Washing Feet

This evening I learned another lesson from my soon to be four year old. I know it's weak that this is my only blog material as of late, but this was significant.

Tonight was the playoff tournament for our Co-Rec softball team. I'm proud to say that our record is perfect - perfectly bad! We lost every single game ... except for our first playoff game - which we won due to the other team not having enough players. The outcome of our game tonight was not favorable, but it's a great group of people to be around, and thank God the beatings are over.

Anyway, back to the boy. My son has a crush on an extremely cute three year old named Allison. He says that she is his girlfriend, and tonight he said that he loved her. I wish we were still in the era of arranged marriages. I'd hook this one up in a second (Cody and Amy, I think we can work it out). Jacob loves it when Allison comes to the games to watch her Daddy play. Tonight was such a night. They ran and played and climbed and mostly played in the dirt. When it was discovered that Allison's feet were dirty from their play time, Jacob volunteered to wash her feet. He took the wipes and started to work. I was not an eyewitness, and I'm not sure how good of a job he did. I'm not even certain that he got to execute his plan, but it was a beautiful moment. Tears were in eyes, and I'm proud of my boy. When a lot of kids punch their "girlfriends" or boss them around or tell them what to do ... Jacob wanted to wash her feet.

Normally at night, we go through our KidsTalk page that Holly puts together for all the kids at our church. Tonight when I was tucking him in, with tears in my eyes, I told him that he did something just like Jesus. I told him how Jesus washed the disciples feet when they were dirty. I also told him that tonight instead of me teaching him something, that he taught me something. Tomorrow I'm going to look for an opportunity to wash some feet - especially of the people that I love.