He Looks Mighty Good To Me

Last Thursday night Michael took me out to eat steak for my birthday. I drove in from North Richland Hills and met him at Waxahachie for a nice quiet dinner. The steak was delicious and the company was sweet as we caught up on the last couple of days. We didn't leave room for dessert, even though I was going to splurge and get the brownie thing to celebrate the day. We visited a while then decided to head home. We walked out the door, he kissed me good-bye, then walked toward his truck and I went the opposite way to the van. As I was unlocking the door I looked back and saw him walking off in those Cinch jeans. Made me smile. I love the way he looks in those jeans. They are great for his long legs and other things. Wink. He looked mighty good to me.

I got in the van and headed toward home and reflected over my last two days. I had been sitting with my Aunt Tommie in the hospital because she fell and broke her pelvis in four places. She also has been diagnosed with Alhzheimers, so she forgets she's broken and wants to get up out of the bed or wheelchair.

She knew who I was on Wednesday when I got there and we had such a good day. Only three or four spells of agitation because she didn't understand where she was. She told me the same story over and over most of the day. We went for "walks" in her wheelchair to the big window so we could look outside.

When I got there Thursday morning she was crying, trying to figure out what to do with her robe. When she saw me she said "Oh darlin, I thought you weren't ever going to get here." I put all my stuff down and pulled her to me and she just cried. Broke my heart. Thursday was not a good day. She stayed upset most of the day. The stories she told didn't make sense like they had the day before. I loved her more than I ever have.

In all of her confusion that day there was one story out of the whole day that did make sense. Only one. I asked her if she remembered the time my daddy was accidentally shot in the neck. They were at our house at the time and she stayed with us kids while mom and Uncle C.W. were with daddy at the hospital. She smiled and said "Oh yes I do. Darlin, let me tell you something about your daddy. He was one of the most gentle men I have every met in my life. He cared about people. Always kind. Not much got him upset. He was a good man." Clear as a bell. She said it. It was birthday gift from her to me and she didn't even know.

So as I was driving home, I realized why Noah stayed with Allie in the movie The Notebook. He didn't want to leave her there by herself at the home, 1) because if there ever was a moment of clarity he needed to be there so she would know he never left her and, 2) because in all the time when there is no clarity, there is often fear, and he needed to be there to get her through that. I understood completely. It's so hard to leave.

Michael has said from the time we first go together that he looked forward to us growing old together. He always says that he will take care of me. I know that he will and that if the shoe is on the other foot, I would do the same, with so much love. It wouldn't matter if he didn't always know who I was, or respond the way I wished. It wouldn't matter that the Cinch jeans may not look quite as good. It wouldn't even matter if the underwear was droopy in the backside. I know he will still look mighty good to me.

Spring Up, Oh Well

I left right after church Sunday to pick up the girls from their Work Crew Reunion at Camp Peniel. Averi and Jerret met me in Waco so I could get back in time for Heroes at 6:00.

I got into the van and checked the rear view mirror before I pulled out on to I-45. When I looked in the mirror I saw the chunk of hair that is growing in - right on top of my head. I never knew how it fell out or broke off, whatever it did, I just know it is taking an awful long time to grow back. It is about two inches long now.

The song “Spring Up, Oh Well” came to mind, like it does every time I pass a mirror or store front and catch a glimpse of the little shock of hair poking up on top of my head.

So I’m singing the song and I think of our ladies’ retreat back in October and how the ladies sang this song along with the motions. The girls taught them the song because our retreat was on the woman at the well in John 4. They were great sports to follow along and have fun with it. The “gush, gush, gush” and “splish, splash” were pretty cute done by 60+ women of all ages and backgrounds.

I started thinking about the woman at the well and how she was being offered “living water” by the Son of God Himself. The only water she knew of was water that would quench her physical thirst. What Jesus was offering was water for her spiritual thirst.

Then because my brain was already busy, it went to Ephesians 5 where men are instructed to love their wives as Christ loved the church by washing with the “water of the word”.

Then I thought of John 1:1 when it says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” And then in John 1:14 it says “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

So here is what the gray matter that lives in my skull was figuring:

Jesus is the Word.

The Word is water.

Jesus is that Living Water. He was offering this outcast woman Himself.

His very Self.

Is it interesting to only me how when old Nehemiah went back to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem (Old Testament) that the only gate that didn’t need repair was the Water gate?

Can’t help but smile on that one.

So I had my own little Bible study as I was drove down I-45 and pulled in to Corsicana on the first leg of my journey. All because of a fountain on top of my head.

Oh yeah, as a side note: the fountain on my head also reminds me of how my mom sent me to school in the first grade - with a fountain we affectionately called a "top knot". Gee.