It was a race against time. The last ferry boat to the island where we had a hotel reservation left at 8:30. We did everything the speed limit would allow. When we stopped for gas, we did one of my infamous Hutchcraft drills where you fill the car, empty yourself, and grab a meal in just minutes. All that's missing is the stopwatch. We knew it was going to be close so we didn't waste a minute. We roared into town and up to the dock at 8:40. We got there too late. We missed the boat - the last boat.
Rwanda. That's a word many Americans never knew until that little African nation was all over our TV and newspaper a few years ago. Tens of thousands of Rwandans were slaughtered in this bloody civil war. Billy Graham's son, Franklin Graham, took a medical team to try to help them, and I heard him tell about one little girl that he could never forget, and I don't think I ever will forget this. He was in this rebel camp, and he was walking by an army truck, and he noticed this one little girl sitting in the back of it, and she was just rocking back and forth. And she was singing something very softly, but in a language Franklin couldn't understand. There was a soldier standing by and he was paying no attention to the girl, but Franklin said, "What happened to this little girl?" And he said, "Ah, same as all the others. She's got nobody left." Franklin said, "Well, would you do me one more favor? Would you tell me what she's singing?" The soldier seemed a little annoyed, but he listened for a minute, and he said, "Yeah, it's, uh, uh..." And then he went on to translate it. And when he translated the song, it was clear this little Rwandan orphan hadn't lost everyone.
Our friend, Cathy, has walked to get around most of her life, but recently she started floating. She's got this glow. She's got a new bounce in her voice when she answers the phone. She's got a new confidence. Cathy's more alive than we've ever seen her. Now what magic could bring about all these wonders? If you haven't guessed by now, you have been away too long. She's in love! She's in her twenties, and this is her first really big romance. It might be her life-long romance, and it's pretty exciting to watch.
Think about you in seventh grade. You say, "I'd rather not." Well, think about you. I mean, what a hunk, right? Miss America! Probably not. Our daughter had a funny experience in her senior French class in high school. There was some down time, and some girls were comparing their wallet pictures, including our daughter. She had out her senior picture and her seventh grade picture, and she put them right next to each other. The teacher asked what everybody was laughing at. Well, our daughter's always had a beautiful smile, but I have to tell you, in seventh grade it was decorated with braces, she had glasses, her hair was kind of kinky and curly and all pulled back, and she looked like a seventh grader. Well, her French teacher looked at that particular picture of our daughter, the seventh grade version that is, and then to the very beautiful senior in her graduation picture: no glasses, long hair, carefully curled hair, big blue eyes unconcealed by glasses. That teacher had a simple two-word reaction, (French teacher, of course) "La Miracle!" Well, "The miracle?" Our daughter could laugh with her friends; she could laugh with her teacher at that old seventh grade picture. Hey, it wasn't her anymore.
Now, it can't be good news when a lifeguard yells, "Everybody out of the water!" He did that day I was in the water at the Jersey Shore. My first thought was "Jaws!" Since I didn't have my shark repellent that day, I got out very quickly. But sharks weren't the problem. Drowning kids were. These three kids were too close to a jetty, it was high tide, and the kids were in big trouble. And so, the lifeguard cleared the water, and then a bunch of lifeguards plunged into the surf. Some were swimming, some were rowing. Hundreds of people were lined up along the beach watching this life or death drama. Now the beach patrol guys got there before these kids disappeared, and it's a good thing. There was no way those kids were going to be able to swim their way out of this. They were rescued, but they didn't contribute a thing to being saved.
My son and I were waiting in front of a restaurant and we saw this dad desperately trying to keep his impatient two-year-old occupied. What's that word they use sometimes to describe the "two's"? "Terrible"? Now there's something in a little child that wants freedom, and will go for it at the first opportunity. This kid was no exception. As soon as his dad let go for a moment, he started chugging down the sidewalk. Dad started after him, pretending he was having a hard time catching the little guy. Well, you knew he wasn't. My son just watched in amusement and he said to me, "It's so funny watching a kid trying to get away from his father. You know he's going to lose."
It was home improvement time at our house, and with me having a chronic sense of "uncoordinitis," well, we obviously need some help. And our friend Tim is the man for the job for two reasons. First, he's just really good at designing and building and problem-solving. Of course, there are a lot of people who are craftsmen like that. See, the second reason is what really made Tim the man for the job. Sometimes we were gone when he was going to be at our house working. And since he was working in all parts of our house, he needed keys to everything, and there was no place in our home that he couldn't go. That meant we needed not only someone who could do the job, we needed someone we could totally trust. And we had someone like that.
I shave the old fashioned way - hot water, shaving cream, and a razor. I guess that makes me a "real man," huh? Well, the other day I was shaving in a hotel and I realized I had run the hot water too hot. It's one thing to soften your beard; it's another thing to cook your face. So I ran just a little cold water into the sink. Now that was amazing! Suddenly, the water was not hot enough! See, I underestimated how quickly the cold can cool off the hot.
We get our share of storms where we live, and we’ve got our share of trees. So, you can probably figure out the rest. After almost every storm, I make the rounds in the yard, picking up the souvenirs the storm left behind. I haul all those downed branches to my special brush pile place, even if they’ve got leaves on them. Even if I am a city boy, I know there’s no use planting those branches in the ground and hoping they’ll grow more leaves. In fact, those leaves they have are soon going to fall off. As soon as the branch gets separated from the tree, it starts dying.
My wife and I will never forget our time on the little island of Haiti, some years ago. It's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and a heartbreaking place for anyone with a little compassion in their heart. While we were there, missionaries told us about one recent tragedy; one indicative of so many in the lives of these beautiful people. There had been an epidemic of conjunctivitis, or "pinkeye" as it's often called. Women were frustrated by having their eyes crusted over or running with conjunctivitis, so they tried what they thought might cure it - bleach. They rubbed bleach in their eyes. You know the outcome.
