This is True Love

It's official. I have seen true love and now know that my dad is still, after 52 years, completely and totally in love with my mom. How do I know this? I've seen it demonstrated in the most self-sacrificial ways over the past six months. He never complains, never gets down, never whines. He is gentle, upbeat and never shies away from the difficult tasks of caring for her. But now I know the extent of that love reaches further than I had imagined. How do I know this? I know this because yesterday he bought a mini-van. Actually, it's call an Entervan. It's a wheelchair accessible van with an automatic lift and a lowered floor. I had no previous knowledge of these kinds of vans. I've seen them here and there but mostly thought them to be an aberration of the "normal" mini-van like the one I drive. I've not once given them a second thought. But that's the way these things work, so the nice salesman who sold us the van said. "Until you need one, you never think about one." So true. Now, suddenly, I know more than I would ever want to about Entervans - wheelchair accessible doors, the Braun lift system, the E-Z Lock tiedown system. I would rather not know these things, but now I do. And so does my Dad.

He said he would never buy a mini-van...too clunky...didn't need one...liked his Buick, etc. In one day, we arranged to sell that precious Buick and walked on the lot of the National Car Rental and bought this van. My Dad has never in his life bought an automobile that way. He shops cars like he does grocery stores - traipsing from one dealer to the next in search of the Deal of the Century. And he usually finds it, then bargains his way down to a price that he can brag about. I do believe this way of buying cars is in the Dad Handbook. So this is love - to walk onto a lot, buy a vehicle (a MINI-VAN!) in just under one hour, and pay-off the Buick and arrange to have it sold in the same day.

Tough times should change us, grow us, make us better and draw us into a deeper relationship with God. I am working on not being afraid and I am stifling the urge to turn and run from it all. Someone I respect greatly who has studied the Bible and meditated on it a great deal says that: "Learning to suffer well just might be the most important part of the journey of faith." So I am trying to learn what it means to suffer well. We all are. Is buying a mini-van part of this learning process? I guess that's a theological question for someone else, but I do know this: My Buick Dad is excited about this mini-van - this vehicle he said he would never buy. He's not grinding his teeth about it or grumbling about the price. He's proud of this new van, and he hasn't blinked once about selling the Buick. That's true love.