Thumbs Up!

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Ray and I have scheduled some quieter days than usual during the Christmas holidays.

The Friday morning before Christmas was not one of those quieter times. What was I thinking when I scheduled at haircut on the Friday before Christmas? And why did I follow that haircut with errands in town? Business was thriving. Packed roads and parking lots proved it.

I hurried out of a department store into the frigid air and found our car. We’ve had our old car for several years. It’s really quite a tank, but we love the comfortable ride, the great gas mileage, and the security we feel in a big, old, heavy car.

It’s great when you’re on the road, but not so great in crowded, Friday-before-Christmas parking lots. First, let me say that I hate backing. When I can, I always choose a parking spot that I can pull into and drive forward out of.

I have a good reason to hate backing. Sixteen and a half years ago, three days before Ray celebrated his fiftieth birthday, he and I drove to Memphis, Tennessee, for a getaway/homeschool convention. For security reasons, we separated our vehicle and our trailer. The next morning we set about hooking them back up. In the process of doing that, I accidentally backed into Ray and broke his wrists — not wrist singular, wrists plural — both of them! They weren’t simple breaks either. To quote the surgeon, Ray’s right wrist was “in a thousand pieces.” Ray had surgery on both wrists the next week. His painful therapy wasn’t finished until five months later. Ray still has metal inside his wrists!

You can imagine how I felt at the surprise birthday party our children threw for their dad on Sunday two days after I broke both of his wrists! The two things I can remember my capable husband being able to do was to put one piece of finger food (like popcorn) in his mouth and push his glasses up on his nose. That was just about it!

One of our favorite family stories came out of that five-month ordeal. One day when I was dressing Ray (I’m not kidding; he was pretty helpless), I asked him if he would like a belt. With tongue in cheek, he said, “Haven’t you done enough?!” It’s humbling to be teased — and still to be loved — by someone you accidentally hurt so badly!

Well, now you know why I don’t like to back up a car. Last Friday I parked in a space that I had to back out of, a feat not so easy when you are driving a tank in a full lot. I carefully drove backwards and then forward and then backwards and then forward in baby steps until I got out.

When I was safely out of my spot and headed in the right direction, I noticed a man smiling and giving me a thumbs up. “What’d I do to deserve that?” I wondered. “Did I do a good job backing?” I was bumfuzzled, but grateful. We can all use some sweet encouragement — even a thumbs up from a stranger in a parking lot. I wonder who you and I can surprise with a blessing today.

Therefore encourage one another
and build up one another,
just as you also are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:11

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