Big News

No! There is no new Little Sprout on the way. Just thought, I'd get that out of the way at the start.

The Background:
Every Saturday, Dad calls me. He lives on the East Coast, I'm in the Midwest. Occasionally, I see his phone number on my caller ID, at other times, but that usually means he's calling to tell me someone died. Not always, but usually.

We talked quite awhile on Saturday afternoon. He gave me an update on his medical appointment, shared about a few community events, filled me in on local news/weather, and told me what he'd been doing with friends. I told him about Little Sprout, home schooling and church visits. The usual stuff. We ended the call the usual way.

"Love you."

"Love you too."

Sunday evening just as we were about to sit down for dinner, the phone rang. It was my dad.

"Guess what I did today?"

Hearing those words and the happy, almost perky tone of his voice, I was relieved that we wouldn't be talking about another death in the family or community.

My mind was a blur. What would cause a soon to be 70 year old widower to be this excited? Marriage? "No, be logical," I told myself. There was no available wife that I knew and as private as my Dad is I think he'd have let that slip sometime. And weddings aren't usually on Sunday, are they?

After I dismissed the marriage idea as improbable, I couldn't think of anything else. I decided to play dumb. No I actually was dumb.

"I have no idea, what did you do today?" I uttered trying to playfully reflect back his joyous tone. Secretly I was praying that the joy would come naturally once he told me the big news. But still I was worried that I might not share his opinion of this "great" event.

"I was baptized today."

And so we talked. My dinner got cold, but I didn't really care.