A Revelation

God revealed something to me the other day. My dad is impatient.
That wasn’t the revelation.

In my almost 46 years on the planet, I’ve known that one for at least 41 and a 1/2 of those years.

Some context. I’m helping him with his vegetable garden this year. I prefer the produce stand, but he likes a garden. With his failing health the garden isn’t happening without me.

My 7 year old son, Will and I were over there helping one day and it happened.

I should pause to say that my dad thinks his grandson walks on water. It’s just something I know. I see it clearly. As sure as collard greens are disgusting this old man cherishes his grand boy.

But it still happened.

My dad asked Will to hand him a bolt. Several things sat on the work table and Will didn’t know what a bolt was, so he responded a little slow. My dad snapped at him. Then he snapped again. I had to ask him not to yell at my boy.

Oh, I remembered the days of my youth.

Then it occurred to me. My world shifted. My dad’s impatience with me as a young boy wasn’t a reflection of his lack of love for me. No more than it demonstrated a lack of love for the grandson that hangs his moon.

It’s just who he is. A perfectly flawed human. A composite of all of his own life experiences. A man whose father left him, an only child, at a young age.

Today I am exactly one month from my 46th birthday. An early gift was the revelation that maybe Will’s not the only boy that this man cherishes.

May 21…your gift is still welcome.