July 31, 2024 - Good Morning! It's Wednesday, July 31.
On a Sunday evening in the summer of 1988, I had to miss the Sunday night service at my church in Arlington, Texas. I've always enjoyed Sunday night services. It's a more casual atmosphere than Sunday morning, and you can include audience participation features like testimonies and song requests. But on that particular Sunday night, July 31, 1988, my church somehow made it through the evening service without me - imagine that. I was at a hospital in Fort Worth for the birth of my firstborn child.
My wife had sung with a trio during the morning service that day - when she was already having labor pains - what a trouper! Immediately after the service we drove to the hospital and our daughter Claire was born that night. I can still remember walking out of the hospital room and seeing about 30 members of my church in the waiting area - deacons, choir members, good friends. I guess they skipped the Sunday night service, too. Leave it to a minister's child to be born on a church night. I was born on a Wednesday evening, also a church night. I'm not sure that my father, a pastor, missed that service. He was old school. My mother may have had to fend for herself. But, then again, when it comes to childbirth, we dads are usually just nervous bystanders.
Claire turns 36 today and is now a mother of two herself. My oldest granddaughter was born on Thanksgiving Day, and my youngest was born in San Antonio, on a day when I was supposed to be here in Center, leading a National Day of Prayer community service. Somehow, they got through that service without me - imagine that. And so, my granddaughters continued our proud family tradition of making a grand entrance . . . in the middle of something else. I'm reminded of that old saying, "Life is what happens while we're making our plans". Here's another old saying, from Proverbs 16:9 - "We make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps".
Happy Birthday Claire!
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
