Ark Valley News - Hope and hilarity

Hope and hilarity
By Chuck Terrill
Last Updated: May 21, 2015

Children are God's gifts to us

Ben was 13. He was in the back seat, right behind me, as I drove our big, black Lincoln Town Car.

If you are wondering how a preacher can afford a luxury car, wonder no more. It had been totaled out in a hailstorm, and I bought it from the insurance company. Outside, it looked like a flock of maniacal woodpeckers had worked it over. Inside, it was sheer comfort. I replaced the broken windshield, but never bothered to fix the dents. Everyone in the family was embarrassed to ride in the car. But I loved it.

Anyway, Ben got to fiddling around with the electric window switch. He rolled down his window. The air rushed in, swirled around the car, and his mother, seated in front, said, "Ben, roll that window up! It is messing up my hair!"

He rolled it up.

A few minutes, later, bored, Ben rolled down the window again. His mother scolded him and demanded he roll it back up. He did. I don't know whether it was absent-mindedness or absolute rebellion, but a few minutes later we hear the whir of the motor and his window was open again. His mother's hairdo was now messed up,

She turned around in the seat and said, "Ben, you roll that window back up! If you roll it down again, I'm going to have your father pull this car over! And I mean it."

"Boy," I said. "You'd better listen to your mother! You may be 13, but you are not too old to get a spanking by the side of the road!"

Ben rolled the window up. The tension was so thick in that car you could cut it with a knife. You have been in a similar situation, I am sure. Everyone was sullen. Just sitting there, mad at each other and mad at the world.

I couldn't take it any more. I slipped my hand over to the driver's door handle console. I rolled Ben's window down! His mother whirled around. "Ben!" she snapped! "I am surprised at you!"

Ben was absolutely flabbergasted. Stunned, he stammered, "Mom! I didn't do it! I didn't! It did it all by itself! I mean it!"

I started laughing, and rolled Ben's window back up. Mary started laughing when she realized the trick I had pulled on them. Even Ben, shocked as he had been, saw the humor in the situation and began to laugh.

Everything was right in the world again. We all relaxed, settled back in our seats, and smiled.

"Go ahead and roll it down," Mary relented. "My hair is already messed up, anyway."

"We really can't tell the difference," I said.

Ben, with a big grin on his face, rolled his window down.

"Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." (Psalm 127:3)

Chuck Terrill is pastor of Valley Center Christian Church. He can be reached at chuck@valleycenterchristianchurch.org or 755-1233.