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When 4:30 a.m. got there, Tom was eager to get up. There were a lot of things he needed to talk to God about. Just when he thought he had things all figured out, God makes a right turn. That’s right and not wrong, as opposed to right and not left.
He put on that little pot of coffee that they always put in these rooms and sat down to read his daily portion of scriptures. During his first cup, he closed his eyes and began to sing some worship choruses that were dear to him. For the past several months two songs had started his day, Amazing Love and Word of God Speak. This morning, his heart overflowed as the words echoed louder in his heart than ever before.
Ever since those two songs came out last year, they reverberated in his soul. It was if the two song writers had looked into his heart and wrote what they saw. He began to pour out his heart to his Father as he always did. This time he was interceding in behalf of his own family. Prayer now took on a different vibrancy than it had before. And as Tom took time to wait before the Lord, he felt stronger than ever the “unction” of the Holy Spirit, the definite sense that he was at the right place at the right time.
He glanced at the clock on the table and he realized that Fred would be there in fifteen minutes. He had to get a quick e-mail to Philip.
My Son,
I have only a few minutes to write to you. God has graciously
put me in contact with my family and it is wonderful. I can’t
tell you how great it feels to know that they accept me. Yes,
I am going to be moving to Elmhurst. I feel that God would
have me minister to my great-grandson. Just like He did with
you, I feel like He’s got a special job for Arthur to do. If you
don’t mind, would you have some movers come to pack and
store my things? Y'all can keep the furniture if you’d like. It
would be too much to try to get it down here. I will be very
busy for the next couple of days, so I will probably keep my
phone off. Send me e-mail. When I get to a private place
where I can be alone to talk to you I will tell you more.
I love you more than you could ever know.
Dad
He shut off the computer, unplugged the coffee pot, took one last look in the mirror to make sure he looked OK and then out the door he went.
Tom got outside with a minute and a half to spare. When Fred pulled up, he got into the car, buckled up and asked, “First stop the news room?”
“No. I thought we would do a little house hunting first. Being the tax assessor, I get the inside scoop on what’s available and at what price. Plus, I wanted to show you what I thought you would really love,” Fred said.
Tom thought for a second just as Fred started to slow down in front of a home. “Let’s go straight to the special one you were thinking about. You and I have always thought on the same track.”
“That suits me fine,” Fred commented as he sped up. “Let me tell you about it while I’m driving out to it. First of all I own it so I can make it as available as I want. Second, it’s a fishing cabin not too far from the fork in the river that the town was originally named for. Your folks used to have a log cabin up that way a long time ago, didn’t they?”
“Yes, sir. From what my daddy used to tell me, it was about a quarter of a mile back from the fork so that the spring rains wouldn’t overflow the river into it.”
“Well, this one is situated on about a fifteen foot high bank with a real deep fishing spot right underneath it right in the crook of the river. We used to go swimming there, remember?”
“How could I forget? Remember that time I took Jud’s dare to dive off that bluff into the deep part of that pool?”
“Yeah, and you lost your swimming trunks and all the girls screamed and laughed.”
“I remember they screamed and laughed all right but not the first one offered to turn their heads so I could get my shorts and put them back on. AND, you boys sent the slowest swimmer out to bring my pants to me while I treaded water until I was about out of breath.”
“It was funny wasn’t it?”
“Where did days like that go, Fred?”
“I don’t know, Tom. Kids have a different way of having fun, I reckon.”
“Fred, let me tell you a secret. I’ve dealt with kids from pre-teens to teens to young adults for almost forty years. When I can get them into doing some of the things you and I used to do and they see a clean way of having fun, most of them settle down and they actually listen to what I say.”
“They like to do some of those things?”
“Fred, when I introduce them to those tricks we used to pull, they ‘invented’ some new things themselves. Only, it’s some of the ‘old’ things we used to do.”
Fred chuckled at his old friend, “Tom, you’re just as slick as you ever were.”
“No, Fred,” Tom countered, “it’s just that God knows more about human nature than we do. He created us all and if we as leaders would just learn how to listen to Him, He will more than gladly show us how to get to these young people.”
“Tom that is the most interesting statement I have ever heard.”
“It works. Listening to God works every time.”
Fred pulled off the main road and started up a small gravel incline. The road meandered for about a mile and then it stopped beside a little wooden framed cabin sitting up on concrete blocks. It had a screened in porch overlooking the ‘swimming hole’ they had been talking about.
“My gosh, Fred. You must know me like a book. This place is beautiful. I love it. I mean, I really love it.” Tom stopped and turned his head from side to side and commented, “Can’t hear a whole bunch of cars now can you?”
“No, but you sure can hear those motorcycles when they start those tour groups in the spring and the fall,” lamented Fred. “Other than that, the crickets and frogs will drown out anything else. C’mon inside and let’s take a look around.”
As they stepped up on the porch, Tom couldn’t help but notice how solid the porch felt underneath him. Fred held the door open for him. He walked through and stood there looking at a fairly spacious living room. At the opposite end of the room was a breakfast bar with three bar stools pulled up to it. Behind that was a kitchen that was only big enough for one person to walk into. He could see the back porch through the glass in the back door.
Fred said to him, “Watch the curtains, Tom.” He closed the door and every curtain in the room moved. Tom could feel the pressure change in his ears.
“You’ve got this thing just about air tight, don’t you?”
“Sure do. It doesn’t take much to heat or cool. The kitchen looks small but there’s all kinds of room to store stuff. It has two bedrooms and each bedroom has its own full bath. Right now I have three sets of bunk beds in each bedroom to accommodate the people that rent this thing in fishing and hunting season.”
“There’s no use looking anywhere else, Fred. I like this place and I’ll pay whatever you want for it. I worked mighty hard for the government and they have been good to me.”
“It’s yours, Tom. I’ll tell my secretary to take it off the rental market and to tell people it is unavailable at any price. Frankly, I’ve been getting tired of renters for the past couple of years.”
Tom walked through the house and looked at the bedrooms. He went through the kitchen and out on the back porch. It was screened in also. However, a great big oak tree shaded it from the sun. He reached out and gave a wooden rocking chair a tip forward to watch it rock. “You know, this would be a mighty quiet place to be alone. It would be far enough away from the distractions of life so that you could keep somebody’s attention. The bunk beds would make it ideal for Arthur to bring his friends out to have some fun.”
Fred scratched the back of his head and smiled real big and he asked, “Say, Tom. Do you remember
when the best time would be to go snipe hunting?”
With a knowing smile of his own, he boldly declared, “If my memory serves me correct, the best time to hunt snipe is on the first weekend after football season.”
“Then we’ve got three or four weeks to prepare, my brother. Let’s go grab some coffee and make a few plans before Olivia gets there,” Fred suggested as he headed for the door.
Tom fairly skipped down the steps of the front porch and surveyed the area as he waited for Fred. As Fred went over to the driver’s side of the car, Tom said with a sideways grin on his face, “Fred, it sure is good to be home.”
Fred stopped as he noticed the grin he hadn’t seen in fifty years. He shook his head in the affirmative and said slowly, “Tom, you haven’t changed a bit.”
They both got into the car and Tom answered, “Why should I, Fred. Why should I?”