New Blinds

Our Father who art in heaven…

Matthew 6:9 [KJV]

My father passed away in February of 2006.  He was 92 years old, had lived a long and fruitful life, and his death was not unexpected – he had been steadily declining for months.  Even under those circumstances, his death still hit me like a ton of bricks, and I miss him every single day.  Dad was someone I could always call and talk to – chattering away about the most mundane things of my day, and he would gladly listen.  His advice was always solid, and his love was strong and constant.

Yesterday, a contractor friend came over to do some work around my house.  One of the jobs was to hang new mini-blinds in my bedroom.  My old ones were the wrong color, light-filtering instead of darkening, and one set had broken slats.  When I was getting ready for bed last night and closed the blinds, I was thrilled that I actually had a completely dark bedroom instead of one half-filled with light from the neighbor’s backyard spotlights. As I lay on my bed grinning like a Cheshire cat, I had the urge to tell someone about my wonderful new blinds.  My friends would think I was nuts, my kids… well, no.  That left my Father.  Not my earthly father, but my Father in heaven.  He, of course, already knew about the blinds, but that didn’t stop me from telling Him all about them.  I knew that He was smiling at my joy, chuckling at my apt descriptions of all my repairs, and delighted when I thanked Him for these blessings.  It was a wonderful way to end my day.