The Glory of His Grace

After a long, smooth day of travel, our son was about to fall asleep in the car. He was rubbing his eyes like crazy as Daddy put him in his seat. And then he started screaming like a banshee. He wouldn’t open his right eye, and I thought he might have got something spicy in it from dinner. 

And then I tried to open the eye, only to find that his eyelid had curled in on itself and was restricting him from opening his eye. It was freaky. My biggest mistake was in showing my wife, who let out a loud yelp and took 10 steps back from the car in anguish and horror, her hands clasping her mouth. The next thing I heard was a lady’s voice from the car a few spaces over, “Ma’am, is everything alright?” 

With my wife in hysteria, I did all I could do—I peeled the eye back to its normal position, wiped the stream of tears from my son’s face, and tried to get my wife to calm down and get into the car. Priceless.

Second Best

The other priceless moment of the trip came somewhere in Kansas City, when we were listening to a message by C.J. Mahaney, a pastor from Maryland, ask a group of pastors, “Are you a joyful pastor?” My wife turned to my son, then screaming, and said, rather therapeutically, “Son, are you joyfully sitting in your car seat?” Priceless moment number two. 

Day one complete. Just about 410 miles of driving. Two sub sandwiches, an hour and a half worth of rest stops, and a sleepy baby. A quick stop at the Lifeway Campus bookstore before we set out for a much needed book (more about that later). A priceless day with the family. 

We loaded down the car which, much to our delight, meant that we couldn’t bring everything we owned with us. It’s actually kind of nice being parted (if only temporarily) from our stuff. There’s a freedom that comes with losing everything. Especially when you listen to John Piper preach about following Christ into suffering.

And, at the end of the day, my son was happy to be out of his car seat and equally excited to roam around the hotel room.