My eyes were opened that summer
It was my first car. A gray station wagon. YUP! A station wagon! Not many girls can say their first car was a 6-cylinder Dodge Dart station wagon. Red interior. Roll down windows. Individual push down locks for each door. Push button transmission. No air conditioning, so the windows were down in the summer. It was in the 1960’s, when gas was 25 cents/gallon! I loved that car. It had so few moving parts that not much could go wrong with it.
It was my first real full-time job
The commute was 12 miles from my home. On Highway 13. The DuPont Highway. To the beautiful capitol city of Dover, Delaware. I worked at the Recorder of Deeds office. We wrote out by hand, using only a pen, the official copies of the property deeds.
Each morning, I picked up the other women who were working out of town, and needed a ride. They were all at least 20 years older than me. We (well, mostly THEY) chatted the whole 12 miles…there and back again, each afternoon. I did a lot of listening. It was like my own mini-mentor group. They all taught me so much about life and the “how to’s..” of just about anything you can imagine.
That’s where I learned the lesson
The woman was old and gray. She always took the seat up front. The passenger’s seat. One day, after she had been sitting quietly with her hands folded in her lap, smiling like she had a secret, she suddenly changed the subject. She said, “My husband and I went the whole way to Wilmington and back (about an hour’s drive each way) without saying a word.” And she was still smiling as she was remembering. No one spoke for a couple of minutes. I didn’t know what to say, either.
My first response
Immediately, I was sorry for her, but her face was contented and peaceful. Happy, and actually, almost joyful. It didn’t make sense to me. How could she actually be HAPPY about that!?
I was just thinking about that day
And pondering the difference between that and where we are now…In a time when women like to say their husband is their “best friend” and that they talk about everything together, I was stunned to see this lovely woman was content that she and her husband didn’t NEED to talk. They KNEW each other. After so many years, they were content to merely be together. Words were not necessary just to fill the space. She knew she was loved. There was no doubt.
I can’t help but compare
Isn’t that what God wants from us? To choose to be content. Without the need of constant stimulation. And to enjoy just BEING TOGETHER WITH HIM, without the NEED to talk. Rather, quietly sitting together and enjoying the knowing and the being known. There is no doubt. It is so!
Matthew 28:20
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Psalm 16:11
“You will make known to me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
God bless you bunches!
Thank you for all you do!
Awaiting His shout,
The MomCourager™
Excellent! The thought comes to mind, “Be still, and know that I am God.”
A perfect verse for here! Thanks Ellen!