It rained on Saturday. Actually, the rain started Friday night, and it turned our lovely, thirty-acre picnic field into a soppy, soupy mess. We workers arrived early, half expecting the day would be called due to rain. But the cowboys were already saddling their horses beside the rodeo corral. And the air-show pilots were scanning the radar for a break in the storm. And the grill cooks were stoking the fires for another day of free food for our guests.
I was pretty sure I would have stayed home on a such a day if I’d had a choice. I would have celebrated my Fourth of July tucked warmly in my dry home with a good book and a soft blankie. 5000 people had a different plan.
That is the estimate of how many people trudged through the mud together all day to eat and sing, to laugh and cheer, to remember and to worship. I looked around at one point in the fairly miserable afternoon and marveled at the size of the crowd. My mother was sitting beside me and I said to her, “This is a mess. Why don’t people just go home?”
She shrugged her shoulder and said, “Oh, it’s not so bad. It’s better than just sitting home alone.”
And there you have it. We are creatures designed for community. We are made in the likeness of a Three-in-One-God, and our hunger for relationship will never be called on account of a little rain.
Amen! We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. It was great to see family and "old" friends. I've been gone so many years now, I never know who will remember me. Most remember me as Virgil and Ferne's youngest or as Roger's/Rita's/Gary's little sister. I heard absolutely NO complaints from any worker at all, and that's a testimony to the Spirit of God at work in you all.
What broke my heart was the sheer ingratitude of those attending. The trash left behind under chairs and even out in the open, the soda cans with only one drink taken and left to be thrown away, the complaining about no french fries.
BUT God doesn't call us to love only the lovable. In fact, He says the opposite. What testimony is it to us if we only love those that love us back???
What an excellent witness you all provided for God! Thank you again…
Well, I'm glad I didn't hear any of that complaining or notice the trash. I commented to Michael later how hard they worked to make us all comfortable – the wood chips and straw for the mud, the cake and watermelon delivered right to our seats. And I'm with Grandma; that's exactly why we were there too.
Good perspective. I don't think I've ever been so frustrated with the weather. But there were plenty of wonderful moments throughout the day that probably wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been stuck under the tent together!
I should have said the ingratitude of SOME. We were certainly grateful!
I think our noticing it has a lot to do with where Scott and I live and work. We're so tired of self-centered people and how they act and treat the rest of the world. It's like the person that can't walk 5 feet to put their cart in a cart corral at the grocery store.
I loved several moments about the weekend. I had the hardest time keeping it together during the tribute to the Armed Forces. My Dad has been gone 12 years now, and he served in the Army in WWII. I had two brothers in the Army in Vietnam, and one brother in the Army during peace time, and got out right before Desert Storm. It was all I could do not to stand for their Army song in their honor!!
You should have stood! What a heritage.
What a testimony to the faithfulness of God, that His kids acted just like Him and did not give up. And your last line of your blog seemed inspired of the Holy Spirit….well done, wordsmith.
Thanks, Paul.