Yesterday was filled with 1/2 day off of school running around, juggling office work, preparing for my son's 12th birthday (today),and participating in our community Christmas Parade.
Usually, I try to do my best to eat healthy soup for my lunch and manage a well-balanced family dinner three to five nights a week, but the Friday evening rush called for a quick dinner stop of fast-food sandwiches for everyone piled into my Buick. One cheeseburger, one bacon cheeseburger, two chicken nugget and fries meals, two Sprites, a Coke and a Root Beer were quickly consumed while in route to where we were meeting. Finally, we were set for a few hours of cold outdoor parade participation. In the rush to line up for the route, we left our fast-food wrappers, cups, stray fries and bags scattered in the back seat.
We left my car parked on one side of town and we carpooled over to our starting point and I promised our driver that I'd be happy to get him back to his truck across town when we finished the parade. After three hours of the outdoor winter fun (it was only 20 degrees!), the group met at the church for coffee, hot cocoa, cookies and took some time to defrost our cold bodies. After making sure all the kids were picked up from the evening of activities, the lights in the church were turned out and I locked up the building and told my friend that I could get him over to his car in a few minutes.
As we all walked across the parking lot to my snow covered car I suddenly remembered our eat and run as well as our mess in the car from four hours earlier. I began to worry what he would think of the condition of my cluttered car's interior as I remembered the showroom tidiness of his truck earlier that evening, so I self-consciously said, "You'll have to excuse the fast food bags in the car, I was in such a hurry to feed the kids I brought to the parade that I didn't have a chance to clean it up."
He smiled at me for a moment and said, "You know, fast food bags in my car are one of the things I miss most in life." I stopped in my tracks and tried not to stare back in surprise, but I responded, "Fast food bags, you miss them?""Yes, indeed I do.", he said. Before I could ask why he said, "They remind me of children. When I look back on my life and think about the things I'm most proud of doing and accomplishing, it's being a Dad. Fast food bags remind me of the time I spent driving around with a car full of kids."
Honestly, I was overwhelmed with his words of love for his kids as I thought back over the evening of conversation speaking of his love and pride for his children. How amazing that the fast food remains in my car was the physical connection point for him remembering when his kids were small and my awakening to understand the fast food bags as evidence my relationships with the children and teens in my life. Suddenly, the smell of old french fries was not an offense or annoyance, it was the sweet smelling fragrance of life spent with children.
So often, I look around my car, office and home and think, "Wow this needs to be cleaned up before anyone sees this mess!", but experiencing this fast food object lesson makes me wonder if its a mess or evidence of life being lived. Here's to the fast food bags in you life that you often discount as a mess that needs to be picked up. Those grease stained bags may evidence of the blessing you've been looking so hard to find, and they might be sitting right behind you in the back seat of your car - with french fries and root beer in hand.
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