Husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way (1 Peter 3:7)
Mr. Johnson let Marcus take off the rest of the afternoons this week so he could unpack. The baby was due soon, within two weeks, so they wanted to get settled before Micah came home. Marcus was making progress, but Lauren would get home from work, exhausted, ready to relax, and see that Marcus had insane ideas about interior design. Hanging pictures for example. Marcus thought their wedding portrait would go nicely in the kitchen. But when Lauren got home and saw this special memory right above the spice rack she asked Marcus what in the world he was thinking. She grabbed a chair and was about to step up on it to take down the picture when Marcus intervened. “Lauren, Lauren, relax. Here’s what we’ll do. You get off your feet and sit down and rest. I get things out of the boxes and hold them up. We’ll talk about the best place for them and I’ll do the lifting and stepping.” This worked out well. And they had most everything done by Friday. Just in time to go to Noah’s graduation.
Rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans
Noah was Marcus’s cousin. He was graduating from high school. Everyone in Marcus’s family graduated from high school except Marcus. He dropped out of school after the accident and got his GED when he started to turn his life around. It always brought back bad memories when he heard the word “graduation.” And even worse memories when it was from his old high school. So he had an unusual aversion to graduation. But Noah was his cousin, and Noah was a Christian, and unlike most seniors, he wasn’t going out with his friends afterwards. Noah wanted all his family to get together and go out to Mercado’s and celebrate with him. So Friday night Marcus and Lauren headed into town. It was a perfect evening for an outdoor graduation: sunny day, 72 degrees, slight breeze from the north. Marcus sat next to Lauren in the bleachers and held her hand. He watched the procession, listened to the bland graduation speeches, and clapped for Noah. As soon as the kids all threw their hats into the air. Lauren squeezed his hand. He thought it was like a happy, hooray-for-Noah squeeze, but when he looked at Lauren she was wincing.
you do not know what a day may bring (Proverbs 27:1)
“Lauren, is it time?” She kind of caught her breath. “Um, I don’t know. It might have been a Braxton-Hicks contraction.” She’d been having those on a regular basis, just like the doctor said she should. But she didn’t want to draw attention to herself and away from Noah, especially if she was jumping the gun and this turned out to be a false alarm. “It’s okay, let’s go.” So with concern and excitement Marcus helped her stand up and walk down the steps and back to the car. They met all the family at Mercado’s and Lauren didn’t have anymore contractions. Everyone brought in graduation presents for Noah and they piled these on one end of the table. Chips and salsa and enchiladas and burritos were consumed and everyone was smiling. It was a happy time. After dinner Noah opened his presents one by one and thanked everyone. He asked his uncle, Marcus’s dad, to lead a prayer for him. As soon as he said “Amen” Lauren looked up at Marcus and said, “My water broke.”
More about Marcus Redding’s Journey of faith next week.
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