Love on the Rocks



To My Sheri,



Rocky Mountain National Park
Circa 1986

There is a photograph on our bedroom wall showing one of the most magnificent settings in all of God’s creations.  In background is the clear, icy cold water of a Bear Lake surrounded by the majestic Rocky Mountains.  The altitude is over 10,000 feet.  God really knows how to set a scene.

Off to the left, atop a huge bolder sit you and me, kissing.  The younger version me in the picture could have never imagined loving you more than I did at that time.  The present “me” can honestly say, “I had no idea it could be this good.” 

What God has created in you and me, and the love He has given us for each other, far exceeds the beauty of His handiwork shown in that picture. God really knows what He is doing.

So, knowing how much I loved you twenty-five years ago, how much more I love you today, and knowing the Lord continues to work in our lives, I ask myself, “How much more will I love you twenty-five years from now?”

I can only imagine.

Happy Valentine’s Day

A Heavenly Whack Upside the Head

The Grandboy @ 3:30AM

This morning I was up very early thanks to an overnight visitor; my ten month old grandboy Thomas. His grandmother (please do not call her that), Lala, plopped him on the bed at 3:30AM and said, “Here, watch him while I fix a bottle.”  This to me means: “Here, don’t let him fall off the bed.”



By 4:30 he is out like a light and so is his grandmother Lala. So, I decided it was a perfect occasion to take advantage of the time and have a special moment with God.  I showered, took my time getting ready and still I was out of the house by 5:30. I drove over to Sagemont Church in Houston and parked in the parking lot facing a 170 foot cross. At night, or in the dark morning as my ten year old calls it, you can see the cross from miles away.  When Channel 2 News asked the pastor why the church put a 170 foot cross on the campus he replied, “Because the city wouldn’t give us a permit for a 190 foot cross.” Classic.



Today is the 1^st of February and the local forecast was for an Arctic Blast to hit the Houston area this morning.  An Arctic Blast in Houston Texas?  Quick, somebody call Al Gore.

Sagemont Church, Houston, TX  02/01/2011  6:30AM

So there I was sitting in my truck and I would like to say having a special moment with the Lord.  From out of nowhere my truck jolted with a deafening “BANG” as something slammed onto the roof.  At first I thought was that it was hail, but no, that was way too loud to be hail and it jerked me around to the point that I wondered if the cross itself had fallen on me. I couldn’t see anything around me. When I saw the vinyl strap dangling in front of the windshield, I realized what had caused the loud, jolting thud.  For a very short time, the trucks bedcover became a roof cover.  Then I watched as it took off across the parking lot like a skipping stone across smooth water.  In the ensuing downpour of icy rain, I hurried to get the stuff that the cover covered into the cab.  Yeah, this was a great idea.

You might be thinking what a dramatic crescendo, a heavenly exclamation point if you will, to a dynamic meeting with the Father, but, sadly, you would be wrong.  You see I wasn’t in prayer or deep into the Word.  I wasn’t sitting there quietly listening for His still small voice or singing praises at the top of mine. Nope, I was playing “Angry Birds” on my iPhone4.

Maybe I spend too much time with my technical gadgets. 

Maybe I could say that I just hadn’t gotten to that part yet, like playing Angry Birds is a precursor to an effective quiet time. Or, maybe I should blame it on my A.D.D.

Or, maybe I should just say:

“Hello February. Way to make an entrance!”

God Got da Beat



Sinner in the Sand AKA Crayon Wrangler

First of all I would like to extend a very heartfelt and sincere thank-you to a wonderful friend who may have given me the push I needed. When I started this BlogSpot, the idea that anyone would ever read it never even entered my mind. BUT NOW I have been ENDORSED, or in her words Pimped Out, by the very gifted and accomplished blogger, Crayon Wrangler, who I remember from years ago as the “Sinner in the Sand”. So now, I guess I will have to start putting some real thought into this thing.  At first, I don’t think I will be able to do a daily post but I will commit to at least one per week.  So, until I can get my brain wrapped around this thing I will be posting some things I have written in the past.

You should know that for the first fourteen years of our marriage Sheri and I were not able to get pregnant.  I will give further details about this miracle in our life but for now just listen…..

Family and Friends,

It was the most phenomenal sound either of us had ever heard.  Beautiful really; amazing.   More beautiful than any music we have ever heard, and Sheri and I have had the privileged to be in the presence of some of the most gifted, masterful musicians in the world.  Though this wasn’t music we were listening to it resonated with rhythmic perfection.  I believe it was divine perfection, for I know without doubt that this sound could not be produced by the combined genius and artistry of the present or past.  No, this was indeed the handiwork of God Himself.  Because of the advances in technology, we were able to hear through the wall of God’s workshop and listen as He “knit together” one of His “fearfully and wonderfully made” masterpieces.  Today, Friday, March 24, 2000, we heard our baby’s heart beat and smiled.

Gordon & Sheri

Psalm 139:13-16

13 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;  you formed me in my mother’s womb.

14 I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!

15 You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

16 Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.

Purple Man Toes

Below you will find a piece I wrote on 8/27/2006.  Madyson was just two months shy of being 6 years old. At that time I was working in Temple, TX.  It was a Sunday evening, and I had just settled into the Holiday Inn Express. I plopped down on the bed, pointed the remote at the TV and that’s when I noticed it….

A “Madd”^* Rant

I am surrounded by girls. 

My wife; a girl,

My kids; both girls;

Even the dog; girl. 

It seems though, at times, I have to check in my “Man Card” to be the “man” these females need me to be.

Dear GOD, I am a man.

I’m a dad. 

I am a husband.

I am a full blooded, all American, 100% heterosexual male. 

I drive a truck.

I have a license to carry a handgun. 

For cryin’ out loud

For the love of all that is Holy and good

I AM A MAN

But…

Tonight, I am a man working with focused determination trying to remove purple and pink toenail polish from my MAN toes.   Yet, even as nice as they look on me, they’ve got to go.  No, no seriously, they really have to go.

*For Madyson who needed to paint her daddy’s toes. 

I Saw My Dad Today

Daddy went to be the Lord in the summer of 2009, but today, he was standing right there looking at me over the top rim of his glasses. I would swear that was him.

Every time I saw Daddy he would say, “hey boy”, or, “there’s my number two son”. Even though I always assumed that the “number two son” moniker was based on chronology and not as a runner up, I preferred it when he called me “boy”.

He is the one who gave me the name, “Gordon”.  I always hated that name. No one I ever knew had that name. Kids would call me “Flash” or “Gardenia”.  “Hey, Gardenia, how are your pansies?” As a melancholy middle child I really didn’t need any help in the doldrums department. One of my siblings, I don’t think it would be right to mention their name, although it wasn’t one of my brothers or my oldest sister, would make fun of me saying, “Hey, Gordenis with the little p__is”.  I always wondered how they knew. Anyway, that’s a story for another time.

The one nickname that still lingers is, Gordo. I actually like it we people call me, “Gordo”.  It’s kind of nice when someone uses a nickname for you. BUT, do you know what “gordo” means in Spanish? Not so endearing.



Madyson & Pappy
2006



Anyway, we were at our new favorite hamburger place yesterday and I was getting perched up on my stool getting ready to devour my bacon cheeseburger made all the way with smothered onions, bell peppers, and dripping with heart clogging calories when Madyson looked up at me and said, “Daddy, you looked just like Pappy when you did that”.  To which I replied, “I always thought Pappy was a good-looking man”. Sheri had to agree, right?

A few months ago my sibs and I met at Sudie’s for a birthday dinner with our Mom.  By the time I got there everyone else had already been seated.  As I approached the table, the number one son (chronological) said to me, “You know, out of all of us, you look the most like Daddy.” To which I replied, “I always thought Daddy was a handsome guy”. Of course they all had to agree, right?

Well, there I was this morning bushing my teeth and somewhere within the two minute bushing cycle predetermined by my SoniCare system, I looked up over the top rim of my glasses into the mirror, and there he was. I have to say, that if he loses a little weight, he’d still be quite the handsome man.