Evening With Father

If you are a long time reader, you understand that the relationship between my father and I was at best homicidal and at the worse, well, prisons are filled with people just like him.  Yeah, not a raging success.

When I was about 30, I got to thinking that I really did not have a solid footing on what being a Christian "man" was all about.  I had no role model as a youth concerning manhood and though I had been a Christian for 12 years by then, there were no role models I could ever find.  So, I looked around and appraised the manhood which surrounded me then and was still quite unimpressed.  But, there was this old guy, my Sunday School teacher whom was quite impressive.  But, he was not real impressed with me.  He was solidly Western Belief system and I am Reformation theology trained - nails on a chalkboard around each other.

So, one Sunday, I screwed up my courage and confronted him and his wife after church and told them that I was adopting them as my Christian parents - because I really need help understanding Christian living.  I was not asking, I was telling them!  He was singularly unimpressed and told me I was a moron, she was smothered me in hugs and kisses!  But, as time wore on, he came to understand that he had as much a need for me, as I for him.

Now, 31 years later and three years without having seen each other, I had a chance to spend an evening with them.  The three years in which my leg has been a serious problem, has also been serious health issues with both of them!  And numerous surgeries on both sides.

And we talked of our years apart and our years together.
He commented that my studies, all of which were okayed by him before I ever gave them, were awesome.  I was flattered, I was touched he even remembered them.
And he talked about his early life ...

I knew that he loved race boats, did not realize that for 25 years he built and raced hydroplanes.  Two of those years he won the championships.  Four times he set speed records.  And we poured through his photos.  All of the big names in racing, some of whom I had also known, were there.  We talked boat design and hull performances, engines and disasters.

And I remembered ever so slightly Reuben, grandmother's final husband.  He loved race boats, he held for decades speed records with his boat, Little Miss Labor Pains (because the paint job was a nightmare to have created!). And some of Reuben's friends, were also my American father's friends.

It was an evening of rest for my soul.  It was warm and comforting to be in a circle of family.  Reuben I had loved, Paul I do love - both in racing, both having a large impact on me.  And some German cooking!  Which was great since I have to relearn how to cook, sigh.

As I am rebuilding a life from having lost everything between my ears, it is amazing to me to see how things I had not known before, tied together.

You might want to pray for Paul and Lynn, they are elderly and at that point where assistance is needed.  I am not the one for that, I can barely walk to their front door much less up the 18 steps into their house!  And they both have major health issues ...