We Laugh With Ones We Love

“As we deplaned, an incident
Occurred,” he said, “here’s how it went –
Folks pulled their luggage from the racks,
Their cases, bags, and hiking-packs.

“And as we started for the door,
One wife declared, ‘Oh! One thing more –
I plum forgot my purse back there,
When I my customs-form prepared’.

“Her husband smiled a winsome smile,
As he arose into the aisle,
‘I’ll bet that’s happened once before’,
He said to wife whom he adored.

“And at that instant”, said my friend,
“Conviction to my heart God sent –
‘Here’s one who’s gentle with his wife,
When all are tired at end of flight’.

“ ‘You know from talk he’s not of God;
To you that seems a wee bit odd,
For here you are, impatient still,
As you deplane from Israel’.

“ ‘I think it’s time to cross the line
Upgrade your feelings to sublime’,
God said to me as we deplaned,
As we went on to baggage claim.”

(Ah yes! A challenge to us all,
As Christmas comes and busy malls
Try patience in congested space,
Slows shopping – like deplaning case.)

“Perhaps that’s for another time;
A gift I’ll get for wife of mine
That costs me less than attitude –
I’ll give her things in platitude.

“That gift would ask of me and change;
My attitudes don’t rearrange
As quickly as I’d like them to,
Though I’m aware what I should do.

“I need not try it on for size,
His smile has made me realize
I’m out of step, there must be change –
My ways I must now rearrange.

“But how? I ask myself at once,
I feel in this I’m such a dunce;
My stage of change is ‘info-chase’
How should I pray in present case?”

Ask for some tribulation, man,
It patience brings like nothing can;
That’s from the Bible, and a fact
Of life – it shows you that you lack –

Perspective – major things in life
Get lost to us – like kids and wife
And tasks God wants to do through us,
Like, “Rise above each little fuss”.

Take heart attack; or cancer scare;
A home that burns beyond repair;
Catastrophe in wind and rain –
You’re never quite the same again.

Who knows what in his life’s transpired –
A lost career? Forced to retire?
A child who died? Approaching end
To life on earth for self or friend?

I think what you saw on the plane
Was cataract – deep calls again
To deep in you, through rush and roar –
Perspective, and a wife adored.

For we lose sight of ones we love;
God speaks to all, helps from above
With what we need, like sun and rain
To bring our crops to life again.

So ease on back – cause and effect
Are here in play – so don’t select
‘Result’ to be a ‘cause’ to do –
Let fruit of  Spirit grow in you.

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