I just dropped my middle son, 17 (that's his age, not his name), off at the airport. Ryan's flying to Tennessee to spend three days at Union University to check them out and to get checked out for more scholarships. Please, Lord. Please.
Reminds me of my first big trip leaving New Zealand at age 16 for Azusa Pacific College (now University). One semester there, and the direction of my life changed radically. I returned to NZ to work for the summer and the next semester, selling encyclopedias, among other things. Then on to Chicago to Moody Bible Institute where I met my Valentine of this last Monday.
We were all so young then. But not nearly as young as my son who is a year older than I was. Interesting how that works. I didn't even know how to tie a tie. But he does. I taught him last night. Hope he remembers how for the University President's dinner. Guess if he messes up he can just say it's a funky New Zealand knot and be weird in other ways and hope to impress them with his cultural quaintness.
I just read in Isaiah 32:2 that when the King reigns in righteousness:
Each man will be a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.
Ryan's going to need to put on a little more weight to be like the shadow of a great rock. But I do pray that this is what he will become for the others in his life as he moves into manhood. And that the safety and security and refreshment which Isaiah's word pictures paint of godly men and their relationships, will be increasingly true of me too.
