As For Me And My House The Padre’s health has taken an ominous turn. His fumes run out early in the day and on the night shift I have found him to be lost in his own home, his body not working right, his mind not working right, an old man with a young boys restlessness, shuffle walked over here and now not sure why... And so we passed a tossey-turney Saturday night. Even with these decades of being my father’s son, it was a surprise to find that the man who fell asleep brushing his teeth last night was eager to go to church this Sunday morning. I helped him dress, gave him every-ten-minutes updates on the clock, assuring him we would not be late, and we waited. An hour before church my sister called. She’d just heard from Dad’s doctor. It was choke-up news. ________ ________ I grew up in church: twice a day on Sunday, plus Wednesday, and a veteran of many revivals lasting two weeks…and through it all, Dad was always Up There, away from us. It’s a late-in-life luxury to have had a chance to pop a squat on the same pew with The Padre in his old age. There’s church and there’s church and there’s church and so much of it just blends into the invisible past, and then there was today… As we drove his little car to church I had to turn my head away. Is this it, the last service he’ll be able to attend…? He’s seen as something of a treasure in the church. For an ex-preacher he’s a soft presence, there, there, there, giving, giving, giving and nary a taking. People approach him. The world is one Padre better as long as he’s here and the sight of him in his spot is reassuring. They want to shake his hand and the shakes linger the wearier he’s gotten. “How are you doing, Bro. Sidney?” one lady asked and he said, “There’s just a couple little things,” and that’s about as far as he gets into woe-is-me. _______ _______ His church is probably like yours. The old hymns that my father’s generation had memorized are not in favor anymore; at this church they trot one out every service, kind of throw the old folks a bone. Today it was How Great Thou Art. Dad had been silent for the previous songs but when the first few notes of this classic came I glanced over at him and I saw him start to whisper-sing the words. The sermon was an Old Testament reference to Joshua. He’s an old man, been dealing with the wishy-washy Israelites since the time of Moses. He reminds them of how God has been faithful, that He delivered them from slavery, gave them protection in the wandering years, and now after entering the Promised Land, God had defeated their enemies and given them orchards they did not plant, and cities that they did not build. Joshua knew that his people were easily swayed. There were many religions in this new land. He challenged his people to pick a team. You can worship this, you can worship that, “but as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord.” That’s what I was sitting next to. Dad slept through the whole sermon, but he is the sermon. Every day of our lives, we three children of his always knew where our father’s heart was. Through they Yeah! years of building his little family, through the grinding years of dealing with teenagers and a marriage long in the tooth, through deaths and boredoms and financial setbacks, nothing changed our father. When we were under his roof, that house served the Lord. When we left his home it was for us to choose for ourselves, but as for him, he would serve the Lord. ____ ______ A part of me wanted to be urgent, to stand and say, “This might be his last Sunday here!” but I held my piece and watched the little moments of people in their ones and twos coming by to reach to and receive from my little daddy. The other day my sister probed Dad, was there any unfinished business with people, things that needed to be said. He thought it over and said no, “I can’t think of anybody I’m not alright with.” That’s the kind of ending you get when you live a life of Seek Ye First and As For Me and My House… ______ _____ This edition of Uncle P’s Bedtime Stories is brought to you by Eighty-one, where Uncle P watches and reports on how Our Father calls home our father.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 04:11:32 +0000
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