the opportunity...

my husband's nephew, christopher, who i totally adore, preached for his very first time today. he is 20 years old. i met christopher when he was 11. he reminded me so much of my own son. at the time we did not have max. my son, cameron, was 15 at the time. i suppose that was part of the adoration i have for christopher. their personalities are so much alike. anyway, i digress...

mike, max, and i had intentions of attending sunday school at our church then drive to my husband's childhood/family church which is an hour away. oddly enough when you leave our house at 11am you get to that church at 11am. so odd. however, due to max waking in the night and causing loss of sleep on my part we didn't make it to sunday school. this also meant we were 15 minutes late getting to church. fortunately services had not begun. mostly due to the fact that there were many young people who had come to hear christopher speak. and so he did.

as i sat beside his mother, mike's sister, the tears welled in our eyes as we watched this young man of just 20 years of age speak the truth to his peers. mike and i had heard that christopher was nervous and he didn't want his father there to hear him. his father never attends anyway. but, there was that inkling in the back of his head that his dad just might show up. i told mike he wouldn't show. why? because he knows his son. and he didn't want to be preached to; putting him to shame. i know the reality of not getting to see your son "step up to the plate" with such confidence. there in itself lies the shame if you have the opportunity and you don't take it.

afterwards there was a pot luck dinner (lunch) in the fellowship hall. max was the youngest in the crowd and very inquisitive. he had discovered the graveyard beside this very old country church. his grandparents (mike's parents) are both buried there. and his great grandparents as well. his little mind was so full of questions.

by the time we made it back home it was time for our evening services. max had been attending vacation bible school all week and it was time for the kids to show off with songs and a skit. it was wonderful. our little max was on the front row on the right end sitting in one of his teachers' lap. for one solid hour that child didn't open his mouth or smile. it might as well been his daddy up there. i noticed a little girl standing next to him trying her best to get him to sing and do the motions to the songs. and max wasn't about to do any of it. however, mama and daddy were there to cheer him on; smiling, waving, and taking way too many pictures that will all look basically identical. but it doesn't matter. he was all smiles when we ran up front to get him when the singing was over.

we showed up for our "almost" 5yo to celebrate and eat ice cream and donuts.