Monday, October 13, 2008

Lakeside Dreams

On Saturday evening, Sue and I sat on the beach at Grapevine Lake drinking coffee after a long day of watching her grandchildren play baseball. It was a perfect ending to the day.

As I sat there, my mind kept wandering back to a lifelong dream that I've always had since childhood: to run along a beach as the sun rises. It didn't take me long to decide that Monday morning would be the morning of fulfilling this dream.
I promptly got up at 6:30 AM and was at the beach by 7:00 AM. It was just beginning to get daylight. I began my journey westward on the beach with the daylight appearing behind me. I made it to the dock just in time to turn around and begin my journey back as the sun rose.

It was beautiful!! The fresh breeze coming off the lake, blue herons looking for their first catch of the day, and me walking with the Lord; it couldn't get much better than this. Little did I know,though, that God would give me an opportunity to fulfill another lifelong lake experience later in the day.

It was Columbus Day and this meant that Sue and I were in charge of watching her three grandchildren: two twin 9 year old boys and one 13 year old young lady. We decided to spend part of the time at the lake cooking hot dogs, making smores, eating and having fun. It was after all of the cooking and eating was done that the real fun began.
The three ladies were sitting lakeside in our cozy lawn chairs. The boys were in the water looking for lake treasures. Their grandmother gave them specific instructions about not going deeper than ankle deep water. As I watched them, I couldn't help to think about fulfilling my other lifelong dream: racing through ankle high deep water along a beach. I thought "it would be okay with grandma since the boys would still only be in ankle high deep water, what could it hurt to have a race." Of course, I didn't consult grandma prior to ripping my sneakers and socks off my feet. And then, I was gone too fast for her to have a word with me. Before I knew it, the boys and I were racing through the water having a "bucket full" of fun. Yes, what fun it was, especially when the boys tripped and fell face first in the water. Oops...so much for keeping the upper part of the body dry. By the end, none of us were dry. We were wet head to toe. The boys' grandmother and sister couldn't resist and joined us. I think the grandmother was the only wise one, though, because she didn't get wet head to toe. Come to think about it, she barely got her toe wet. Anyways, the four children ran up and down the lake shore in ankle deep water until they were breathless.


On the way home, the boys' grandmother promptly declared that we reminded her of the "Chariots of Fire Movie". I'm not sure we looked like the runners in the picture, but I sure felt like one.



This past Columbus Day was about fulfilling lakeside dreams for me. Thank you, Lord. Your timing is always perfect.

2 comments:

Selah said...

Think of it...I was there to see you fulfil one of your lifetime dreams...plastered with mud from the top of your back to your ankles...forget the wet head to toe...you didn't tell about the mud or the sand in the washer!

nymrsb said...

What fun!