Everyone responds to grief in different ways.
The night we found out what had happened to our friend David in Afghanistan,
I, was sitting on the couch with tears streaming down.
The windows were all open and I could hear
The Cowboy.
He was outside hunting down that nasty raccoon that creeps around our yard at night and poppin him with his shotgun.
And each time he'd nip the ridiculous animal he'd say it out loud,
"That one's for you David."
Him and I, we process quite differently.
I love that about us. :)
And over the years I've had the privilege of watching my Cowboy grow up into this incredibly godly man who really loves His Jesus.
The night after we got the news about David, a group of men from our church got together in the man cave, the one place on the farm that the Cowboy has for storing boy stuff and doing boy stuff.
And you wanna know what they did in that little white building down a dusty dirt road, on a Thursday night in August?
They gathered together and vulnerably discussed ways that they could come around David's family...
Ways that they could support his wife when the faucet leeks or the car breaks down...
Ways that they could remind his daughters of their infinite value in Christ and encourage them over the years to be confident that they are loved and adored by the most High King...
Ways that they could pour into his only son.
Knowing that they could NEVER EVER replace a husband or a father,
they still took the time to be intentional,
time to make sure that as time passes by, these four precious hearts don't slip through the cracks.
And then this weekend, the same group of guys, picked up a little boy who had just lost his Daddy and brought him to a Father-Son Camp Out up here on the farm. And that little boy laughed and he played and he made some new memories with a handful of men who poured out their Christ-like love all over him. Little Garret's Dad is gone, but because of the body of Christ, he now has a whole village of men who are joyfully willing to call him their son.
These men, I've never known men like these.
These men make Christ and family priority.
These men love with their lives and not just their words.
These men are a gift.
I'm so grateful we don't have to live this messy, sometimes rather painful, beautiful, life alone.
Summer's Coming to an end.
School starts tomorrow.
What better way to soak up His grace
than to live life together with a handful of treasure friends?
