Uncle Roy & John Deere & Grace

A handful of people impact your life far beyond what any others do. Uncle Roy is one of those handful for me. He is a gift from God to my life over the decades.

In the picture above Uncle Roy presents me with the gift my daddy gave me 53 years earliers.
It was Christmas 1959 and my daddy was sick. For Christmas he gave me a John Deere tractor I could ride on and pedal. I was 2 years old. 3 weeks later daddy died. Uncle Roy took a special interest in me.

For the past 53 years I have been the grateful recipient of his godly example, his wisdom, his generosity, his prayers and his love.

Recently he moved from his small town of Hugoton Kansas where he had lived for 80 years, to La Habra, CA...the LA suburb. What a daring move for someone headed to their finish line. He moved next door to my cousin.

At a family gathering to welcome them to our "neck of the woods" he surprised me with my "restored" tractor. He had brought it from Kansas to share with me.

My life has been enriched by my Uncle Roy. I did nothing to merit or deserve his love. I did not choose the family I was born into. I can simply receive his love and rejoice....and ain't that just like God's GRACE?!

Dancing at Midnight

Am I one of the few weird people in the world who has risen from bed at midnight, put in my earbuds, turned on a favorite worship song and danced in the moonlight....then slipped quietly back into bed to sleep in peace the rest of the night?

Is it just me that gets up on a 13 hour international flight, goes back near the squished up bathrooms wearing my anti-jet noise headphones, my neckpillow and my eyeshield blinders and while everyone is conked out... begin to slowly, unobtrusively dance to the tune of a intimate worship song?

The Word of God calls us to praise Him in dancing...but what's being pictured in those verses is a boisterous dance of joy...a whirling dervish of delight...mourning into dancing kind of dance. I have those kind of dancing moments too...but not at midnight.

No... at midnight, on rare occasions, perhaps 3 or 4 times a year, I will "slow dance" in worship to my King. My masculinity or sanity could be called into question by such a move...(especially if you could see what I call dancing) but if you deeply know Jesus you may resonate with what I am talking about here.

I love how David responds to Michal's criticism about his dancing. David says in 2 Samuel 6:22 "It was before the Lord..." as if to say, "tough cookies sweetheart, this is between my Lord and me...so frankly Scarlet I don't give a darn!"