Love Itself Waits…Steadfast

It was a Saturday, and both my 24-year-old son and I had made attempts to call each other, but each time the other was tied up with someone and couldn’t talk. A year ago, he moved several states away to Colorado to follow his dream of working on  space exploration while also getting to ski during his downtime.

By the time I had thought to try him one more time it was 9pm and I was a bit tired and didn’t have the energy for a conversation. So I decided to wait and trust that he must be having a full day and we would connect tomorrow instead. It was getting past my usual 10:00 pm bedtime, and so I got up to begin getting ready for bed. 

On my way to brush my teeth, I felt an impulse to just text Brennen to check in despite my earlier decision to wait. 

I picked up my cell, and as my finger hovered just over the first number, it rang.

Brennen’s name displayed, and I felt immediate confirmation that we were meant to talk.

It seems more often than not that he tends to call when he’s on my mind anyway. I laughed as I explained to him that my finger was just about to touch the phone to text when he called. He said, “well, that’s telling, given the situation I’m in right now.” 

He went on to explain that he was driving in the worst road conditions he’d ever been in. 

He was 5 miles out from a small town on Copper Mountain on the way to meet his friends for skiing in the morning. The roads were covered in pure ice, and he and the line of cars following him were driving 5 mph on the side of the road going downhill.   He explained that he had just done a 360 spin on interstate 70 noting that before the tunnel, the roads weren’t too bad and thus, most drivers came out of the tunnel driving far too fast for the conditions.  

As he talked he saw another car spin and commented as he watched that driver follow suit and join the caravan behind him on the side of the road. He then laughed a nervous laugh noting, “at least everyone is going so slow now that all accidents are happening in slow motion.

He eased my mind noting lots of cars in ditches and plenty of fender benders but, “no one’s going to die here tonight. It’s like a slow-motion movie.” Nonetheless, I could tell he needed a soothing voice on the line to help him continue as he rode his break down the icy mountain hill. The phone reception cracked in and out and sometimes he cut out altogether.  

I reassured him I wasn’t going anywhere, even if the phone did go dead.  

And he knew from previous experience that I would see him through to his destination even to the point of calling the highway patrol if needed.

I soothed and bored him for the next 45 minutes with insights about the coming attractions in the town he was approaching as I had found his location on my GPS. At last, he noted that he had arrived to meet his friends and had to get off the phone to figure out where to park and enter. We ended our conversation, but he knew I wouldn’t be going to bed until I had confirmation he was clearly safe with his friends.   About 10 minutes later, he finally texted me that he had found them all and signed off with an, “I love you.”  

As I lay in bed, I marveled at the impulse to text him to begin with, thinking about how Spirit had surely guided that entire interaction. 

If I had gone to bed at my usual time, just ten minutes earlier, I might not have even heard the phone ring. 

The next day I awoke with a realization that the entire experience with Brennen was a perfect metaphor for the Message of Love I had just received and written that Saturday morning.  

Just as I had reassured my son that I was not going anywhere, no matter how bad the connection, had relayed that very same message that morning. Is this a Message you also are needing to hear? And, isn’t this the whole message of the birth of Christ?