You know I am a priest, albeit a married one, but I ran across this picture tonight as I was feeling a need to be a bit nostalgic, and it reminded me of something from Scripture.

In Scripture, in more than a few places, Jesus talks to people about signs. We don’t need to do a deep exegesis here to know that what he was saying when He said you see the clouds and then it storms that He means to say there are some things that are so clear we ought not to miss them.

And that’s what I thought about when I saw this picture. As Ben is 7 now, it is not all that old. But you just look at him at whenever it was, maybe 2 to 3 years back, and think why in the world should I be surprised by what I see in him now?  And further, if you even meet his brother, well how could I EVER be surprised that this is all going this way?  I even thanked Steph the other day for being the “normal one,” but they are all my kids, and even that is a stretch.

Today when I picked Ben up from school it was very cold, very windy, and in the 30’s. Yes, it was cloudy, but in no way did it ever merit a 7-year old who now thinks he is a meteorologist to look up and say “Dad, I think that is a super cell.” And after explaining to him for the 10,000th time why it wasn’t, he moved onto tell me how in a tornado you might not be safe even in a storm cellar.

I was baffled, that is,until tonight. It hit me that I have dealt with all of this before, just in different forms. Scotty was every bit as bizarre as his brother, so much so that we call them twins, even though they are separated by 14 years. And Steph, the normal one, I had to kick out of the house at Ben’s age to GO PLAY as all she wanted to do was stay inside and do math problems (yes, her idea of fun at that age). In retrospect, they boys’ philosophy I get, where Steph came from is an anomaly.

But regardless, I would not trade a one of them, even for something I would really want. They are pretty awesome kids and pretty wonderful human beings.  Sure, they may march to the beat of their own drummers, but I admire them for that.

After all, life is too short. One day you are here, and the next you could be sucked up by a super cell in the dead of winter.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+