Broken Windows, Banks and Spelling Bees

Relationships. There is so much that can be said with that one word. It all came more clearly recently, as we experienced a minor malfunciton with our van.

Here in North Central Arkansas, we have had mostly fall and spring weather. Except for about 10 days so far, we've not had winter. But during one of those winter days, when it was 20 degrees outside and snow falling everywhere, our window had problems. We were at a friends house, and Karl pushed the button that automatically rolls down the driver side window. It never came back up. We were stuck with a window down in winter time and a van full of children. What to do?

Fortunately, my mom (who gave us the van after my Dad's death) remembered that the van didn't originally have automatic windows, they were put in after the van was purchased by my parents. So, somewhere on the door there was still this little covered up mechanism for which to manually roll the window up and down. The crank/handle was gone, so Karl had to use a little creativity and a pair of pliers to make it work while I pulled on the window and guided it. It was a long and difficult process, but it was done. The window was up, protecting us from the snow and cold weather, but we couldn't use it anymore at all.

As we have taken the van to a body shop and are awaiting parts to arrive to allow the van window to be useable again, we still have to go on with life. Without a driver side window. No drive through service at the bank, restaurants, ATM's or anything like that. To make things worse, out here in the boonies, it is almost a requirement that if you see a friend on the road going the other direction, you stop and roll down your window and have a lengthy conversation while people pile up behind you, not getting angry of course because they as well know it's a requirement to do so. We couldn't communicate with people anymore! We were afraid some would think we were becoming anti-social!

So, we had to go to the bank. Can't do the drive through, so we went in. I try to avoid this when all three children are with me, just because I know they are offered lots of suckers and other such things by all the bank people who think they are so cute. But we had to do it. We had to go in. I guess it had been a while since all of the children went in to the bank with me. The tellers all remarked about big Greta was and there were hearty congratulations to Michael, as many of these people read the only paper in the county and saw his picure in it for his 2nd place finish of the county spelling bee. Michael, of course, got shy. Greta knew she had the attention of the people and performed a little. Matthew grinned real big, and his dimples showed as well as his scar, making him look all the more adorable. There were smiles everywhere.

To think, we would have missed this, if we had gone through the drive through. For once, I was glad the window on the driver side was broken. Perhaps in our quest for ever more convenient, fast and hassle free service we begin in some ways to sever relationships. Has our christianity become so convenient, fast and hassle free that we are beginning to sever our relationship with Christ?