Friday, August 06, 2004
Message to a Son
What??? You don’t believe in Jesus or God????
What did you say????
Where did that come from????
When you were conceived (at Willie Nelson's Bi-Centennial Picnic, July 4, 1976), your Dad and I had drained our bank account of its last $7.40 to purchase some cigarettes and cheap hotdogs and a 12-pack of Texas Pride to get us through the long weekend. It was hot. We were starving and without hope or future. But we had two free tickets to the Bi-Centennial Picnic and we wanted to celebrate this America so we spent everything we had and went.
A few weeks later, we found out you were coming. I had to fight for your right to be born against that almighty foe, Planned Parenthood -- that self-proclaimed protector of society who tries to keep all poor people from reproducing. But even with no jobs and being pregnant and living half a country away from my family, did I ever feel a lack of God? Of course not.
I found three part time jobs and took them all just to get some grocery money to provide nutrition for your developing little self, grateful to be the Midwestern-raised kind of woman that is willing and able to work.
I prayed every day –- probably every hour –- that you would be born healthy, happy, wise, and good, and do God’s work. And then you came, healthy, happy, wise, and good.
You may not believe in God, but He believes in you.
It is an old line, but one dear to my heart. What if the astronauts landed on Mars and found a disposable Kodak camera -- would you say the camera was the product of natural evolution? And yet how much more complex is the human eye? Could either possibly exist without a guiding hand?
What??? You don’t believe in Jesus or God????
What did you say????
Where did that come from????
When you were conceived (at Willie Nelson's Bi-Centennial Picnic, July 4, 1976), your Dad and I had drained our bank account of its last $7.40 to purchase some cigarettes and cheap hotdogs and a 12-pack of Texas Pride to get us through the long weekend. It was hot. We were starving and without hope or future. But we had two free tickets to the Bi-Centennial Picnic and we wanted to celebrate this America so we spent everything we had and went.
A few weeks later, we found out you were coming. I had to fight for your right to be born against that almighty foe, Planned Parenthood -- that self-proclaimed protector of society who tries to keep all poor people from reproducing. But even with no jobs and being pregnant and living half a country away from my family, did I ever feel a lack of God? Of course not.
I found three part time jobs and took them all just to get some grocery money to provide nutrition for your developing little self, grateful to be the Midwestern-raised kind of woman that is willing and able to work.
I prayed every day –- probably every hour –- that you would be born healthy, happy, wise, and good, and do God’s work. And then you came, healthy, happy, wise, and good.
You may not believe in God, but He believes in you.
It is an old line, but one dear to my heart. What if the astronauts landed on Mars and found a disposable Kodak camera -- would you say the camera was the product of natural evolution? And yet how much more complex is the human eye? Could either possibly exist without a guiding hand?
