March 7
O God, full of compassion, we commit and commend ourselves to you, in whom we live
and move and have our being. Be the goal of our pilgrimage, and our rest by the way. Give us
refuge from the turmoil of worldly distractions beneath the shadow of your wings. Let our
hearts, so often a sea of restless waves, find peace in you, O God; through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen. ELCA prayer
Two different times in my life, I had major money troubles related to vacationing.
The first time, when I was a kid (late 1970’s), our family was driving from our home in Florida to join the extended family in Michigan for a wedding. My parents made a road-trip out of it, the five of us jumbled into a simple Ford Econoline van. We explored tourist spots like Chincoteague, Washington D.C. (when the Muppets had an exhibition at the Smithsonian), and then a ferry across Lake Michigan from Wisconsin, just because.
At one of our early rest stops along the way, I lost some cash, like, ALL OF MY SPENDING MONEY! I was wearing one of those pairs of denim overalls, cut short for warmer climes. What I thought was the perfect spot for keeping my cash safe, (the chest pocket, where my cash was close to my heart!), ended up being prime for losing it quickly. Undoing the straps, the overalls fell forward, and so did my wad of spending money. I picked it up and set it on the small shelf beside me in the rest stop bathroom stall.
It wasn’t until we were about 40-50 miles further up Interstate 75 that I realized I left my cash in the bathroom. Some lucky soul was having a field day!
Forget going back for those 70 some odd dollars. My parents let me have a “consequence moment,” whatever that meant. I suppose the vacation was fun and all, just not in the sense that I came home with loads of self-indulgent souvenirs.
The next time, fast forward to the early 2000’s, when Chris and I were stashing away whatever was left from our humble career beginnings and young-parenting days.
We were taking the kids, 3 and 4, I think, at the time, to Disney World! We were able to get our park passes at a discount ahead of time (when there was a Disney store at the mall to buy things like that) and started putting away travel cash for everything else.
I remember that green clutch zippered change purse/wallet, my sister-in-law, Lisa, bought it for me.
Then, it was gone, along with roughly $700 for our upcoming vacation. Was this going to move our vacation plans to another year? Could we somehow come up with at least SOME replacement money to enjoy a modest trip with our family to the “happiest-place-on-earth (if you’re-rich)”?
Later that week, I got a call from a customer service rep at the local Target, where I’d shopped recently. They asked if I could come in to identify missing property. Apparently, I had dropped my wallet in the parking lot and someone turned it in. Everything was still there, including our vacation cash.
I suppose the biggest lessons learned in these two scenarios: have faith and trust that things will work out. As a kid, my parents may not have given me replacement money but they still provided me with a fun and safe trip, filled with great memories and family moments. Then, as a young parent, I realized that we’d still go on vacation, even if we hadn’t found the padded wallet. We still made sure it was about fun, safe travels, filled with more great memories and family moments.
My prayer for today: Lord, thank you for the tender moments with family. You ask us to be humble, and sometimes we need a nudge, so, thank you.