The doorbell rings repeatedly and three blonde heads with big blue eyes look through the glass door shouting, “We’re home! We’re home!”. I open the door and the onslaught of flushed, smiling faces fills the quiet house with laughter and noise.
“Where’s Daddy?” I ask.
“Still in the car. On the phone,” I hear as they sprint for Legos and Transformers and books.
Ah, yes. How many times has he sat there in the car finishing up a call? How many times each day does that little black rectangle beckon with the needs of a church-full of news and to-dos; joy news, sad news, amazing news… the hardest news?
How does one man carry it all and a family? One man must shoulder it up to another Man. And He carries it all for all of us.
But first, the man’s wife has to back away and believe the best. Because that is what love does.
Hungry children yap at me for food. But no one can eat until the daddy comes in. Hungry children turn into fighting children, yelling children, children begging for food.
I lift up my hands and call out, “Where is Daddy??!!”
The famished little people laugh and let Mama be for a bit. But Mama can’t let it be. I wonder what is keeping him so long. I dread the bad news that will excuse his tardiness, and yet I crave a really good reason for why we are less important than a phone call.
Why does bad news have to be a good reason for him to be needed by others more than he is needed by us?
At last he strides in with smiles and love that we have awaited all day. He was up and out of the house by moonlight this morning.
“The moon was enormous when I drove to the prayer meeting,” he tells me. “Everyone was talking about how amazing it was.”
“Aw, we missed it!” Boy 1 exclaims.
“Well, I would have liked to have missed it too,” he laughs. “But if you’ve got to be up, at least you get to see something so beautiful.”
Isn’t that why believing the best is so valuable in relationships? If we are in this thing together every day, at least we can make it something beautiful.
I am loved more than I deserve. Putting that at the top of the list of all the things I know makes everything shine grace and goodness.
Suddenly, he doesn’t seem so late after all. Outside the moon is shining brightly again.
We didn’t miss a thing.
