Do you ever have the feeling that life is a strange trip and you're just along for the ride? That is exactly how I felt this week while driving around in my Dad's Lexus and enjoying all the bells and whistles. I felt like a fish out of water. There is something very ironic about a school teacher/pastor's wife in a luxury automobile. The timing of this purchase is not lost on me as it is also the week of the Teach ONE mission trip in Zambia, which I was a part of last year. My thoughts and prayers are with the teachers working in the compounds of Lusaka (wishing I was with them!) as they minister to children without even the most basic luxuries-- beds, electricity, food and water. There is additional irony as Kyle and I just decided we would like for our whole family to serve in some capacity in Zambia over the next few years. I even had this fleeting idea: I could sell this car to pay for most of that expense. While this might sound like a genius idea, I don't plan to give up Dad's car any time soon. With a 3rd driver on the horizon, I will continue to enjoy God's surprising blessing and provision for our family.
Even this morning, another strange tension follows us as we leave for vacation in Crested Butte, the location of my Dad's accident last summer. There is something odd about the combination of vacation and returning to the place where we tragically lost my father. While Mom, John and I have returned to the CB home on different occasions, Kyle and the girls said their last goodbye to Dad in the Colorado driveway at the end of their last visit. The blessing of time in "paradise" will be mixed with painful memories and feelings as everything will remind us of him.
Whether, humorously driving my Dad's fancy car or sadly remembering him in the place he loved most on earth, I'm determined to enjoy the luxury of vacation and a fine automobile as gifts from God for our good and his glory. Faith in Christ is the most unfathomable blessing of all. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21
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