Lost my keys!

Life is certainly an adventure!  I had gone to Florida last week for a court reporter conference and added in a visit to mom and dad.  We had the best visit, totally low-key, lots of visiting and eating, not a lot of planned activities.  This is while West Virginia was suffering another storm, and I was taking walks in 90 degree weather around the lake – it was great!  My plane was a very early one, so I was to get up at 4:00 a.m. the night before to make it to the airport in time.  I had rented a car so mom and dad didn’t have to come and get me or take me back to the airport as it’s about an hour and a half or so in Orlando traffic – not good.  Dad was insisting he was going to carry my suitcase out when I left, and I was telling him I didn’t need him to do that, they should just stay in bed and I would sneak out while they slept.  Mom suggested I just put it in the night before but I had about half of it that needed to stay out, so I didn’t do that.  First mistake.

At 1:30 a.m., mom comes in and says, “Honey, wake up, wake up, it’s 4:30 and you’ve overslept – you’re going to miss your plane!”  I jump up, run to the bathroom, realize then it’s only 1:30, and mom says, “Oh, I’m so sorry, I don’t have my contacts in and can’t see the clock.”  We kind of laughed and I lay back down to try to get to sleep, to no avail.  Dad gets up at 3:30 and turns the light on, so I go ahead and get up and get my shower.  He is sitting patiently in the recliner, just waiting for me to get my suitcase ready.  I felt so bad about him being up, I got almost all of the stuff in it and said, “Go ahead and take this out and I’ll get my makeup on.”  He takes the suitcase out, and I look for the keys to open the trunk to follow him out.  Can’t find them anywhere!  I go through my purse, go out to the driveway where he’s standing in his pj’s patiently waiting, tell him what’s going on, and we get my suitcase open and start going through this.  Now, picture this:  Middle of the night, half dressed, going through a suitcase (that you have carefully packed and now are destroying) with a flashlight in the driveway…..
It was quite the ordeal.  Long story short, after going through my purse three times, looking under their beds with flashlights, tearing the couch and chairs apart, even calling Teresa and Pete Waldeck who had visited that day to see if they had possibly picked them up (yes, at 4:00 a.m.!), mom says, “We’re going to have to take you to the airport or you’re going to miss your plane.”  I was sick, just sick, that we had all been up all night, scrambling around because I was so irresponsible or something, who knows what, causing all this to happen.  She was right – time had long ago run out and I had no idea what to do with the car or the flight or anything, but I did need to get back to West Virginia.  As we’re pulling out of the driveway, mom says, “Do you think we should pull back in and shine the lights in case they’re on the driveway?”  I said, “No, there’s no way they’re on the driveway.”  Second mistake.

They drive me to the airport, throw me out the door, and I literally make it on the plane after they have paged “Passenger Teresa Evans, the gate is closing – you have two minutes.”  I ran the last little bit to the gate and made it on!  Mom had left me a message that the rental car place (which she had to do all the dealings with!) had told her they had no extra keys, they would have to tow the car back to the location if we didn’t find the keys.  No mention of how much that would cost or what the key replacement would cost.  Once I got in my seat, I was so stressed, I just wanted to start bawling.  I was on the verge, and I began to pray and praise God, instantly thinking that the first thing to praise Him for was the fact that my family, my parents, are not people who blame or yell or carry on.  I know in other families, it could have been a “What in the world were you doing?  Why didn’t you take it out last night like I told you?  Here we are missing a whole night of sleep because you are so irresponsible!”  There was not a word of blame, but more of a “We’re in this thing together.”  What a blessing I have had to have these parents to love me and to raise me and to show me how to live like a Christian! 

I’m guessing you can figure out “the rest of the story.”  They drive another hour and a half back home, pull into the driveway and there they lay, right under the trunk in plain view!  How in the world they got there, none of us know.  I had to have dropped them the day before and didn’t realize it.  Then they had to turn around and make ANOTHER hour and a half trip to Orlando, now in rush hour time.  As I felt guilt and shame and so much regret, they offered no blame but just love and commitment.  Oh, to always live our lives like that!

And when we think about it, isn’t that the love that’s portrayed by our Savior and taught to us in I Corinthians 13?  We think it’s so hard to love like Christ loves, but it’s just a matter of putting ourseleves in the situation of others, looking at things the way they may see it, offering forgiveness instead of judgment.  Let’s make that a commitment for this year – No blame, no judgment – just grace.

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