All of us at some time or the other have offered our opinions as to what is wrong with this world. I certainly have my ideas. Spiritually speaking, I believe everyone ought to love Jesus- but until that happens, I have some other ideas that I think might help. One of those ideas came to me clearly yesterday. I think the world would be a better place if more people spent more time wading in a creek.
Yesterday was one of my favorite kinds of days. We have a few of these days every year. If you are not from North Georgia you may not have an appreciation for what Summertime feels like here. Well Summertime here is hot. The sky is hazy and the air is humid. You sweat, and the sweat doesn't dry up and cool you off. It just makes you wet. Hot and wet.
But every year, usually toward the end of August, we are granted a glimpse of Fall. Yesterday was just such a day. The sky was clear and blue. A coolish breeze fluttered by all day long. The Sycamore's leaves have just barely started to fade, and all of God's creatures seem to step a little lighter. Its just a tease. We have another full month of hot weather, but still, the promise of October was there. You could see it in the blue sky and feel it on your skin.
So, as I left Rocky Face with my three children, I had an idea. I began weaving down the old "chip-and-tar" roads that I travelled as a boy on my old Schwinn dirt bike- past my buddy Phillip's house, past Lindsay Memorial Baptist church where I witnessed my first "running spell" and my good buddy Ray McClure got saved, past the pond on Clement Road where me and my compatriot, Goob, used to sneak in with our fly-rods and catch farm pond bluegills, across the LaFayette highway and down to the Pocket.
"The Pocket" is the name of an area that lies in the Western Shadow of John's Mountain. A springhead bubbles up there. The government has come in and made a sort of recreation area out of the thousands of acres there with campsites, trails, overlooks and the like. But the Pocket lies well out of the beaten path, and I don't know too many people today that have ever been there. The spring overflows the block pool and tumbles down over rocks and ledges until it eventually meanders into the Oostanaula, I suppose, on its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. But for a mile or two it runs right beside the road, shaded by the canopy of evergreens, oaks, hickory nut trees and the other greenery indigenous to the area. That place, in many ways is a picture of my childhood- innocent, wild and free. Well, yesterday, for all practical accounts there was nobody there but us.
Ava and Zeke had been arguing about whose turn it was to plan on the Nintendo DS. Ava was hungry. Zeke was thirsty. Caroline at least seemed mostly content listening to Merle Hagard with me.
"Why are we stopping?" - Ava
"What are we gonna do?" - Zeke
"More questions." - Both
"More complaints." - Both
"If you'll hush for a minute, I'll show you what we are gonna do." - Me
So I unloaded them and took them to the creek. Caroline was in her wheelchair and I carried the whole thing- her included- right out into the middle of the creek.
"Are there snakes in here?" - Ava
"Probly." - Me.
"Can we get wet?" - Zeke
"Absolutely! Just come on in." - Me
And they did. And you know what happened? Everything changed. They forgot about the DS, about being hungry or thirsty, or anything else that was negative. They were enchanted- bewitched- caught up in the spell that moving water casts upon every heart that will pause to hear it. It caught me too. I was no longer concerned or even aware of lawsuits, deadlines or bills.
I sat on a rock next to my Caroline and watched the excitement on the faces of my children. Zeke completely fell in and didn't care a bit. I showed them how to find and catch a crawdad; a feat that was met with squeals of delight that no DS has ever inspired. We splashed and stomped and laughed...and for a time all was as it should be.
But like that August weather, it was just a tease, a glimpse, a hope...Real problems, real struggles lay outside the banks of that creek. Still, the promise was there, on the wind, in the water and on the faces of my children.
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb... " John the Revelator
- Shep
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