There are some things that happen to all of us without the benefit of explanation. Like for example, why does the phone ring just as you step into the shower. Or, why does your mother-in-law want to visit during the Master’s golf tournament or the final episode of American Idol? Timing, they say, is everything, but what I want to know is by whose timing? Surely it can’t be God even if God does have a sense of humor. I would imagine God has higher concerns. Maybe it is just the way the invisible force fields whizzing around in the universe happen to collide at just the most inappropriate times.
Last week such a thing happened to me and R. Being retired folks we tend to take our time moving around in the morning and getting showered and dressed. It is, after all, a perk of retirement. This particular morning it was 10:30 a.m. and we had both showered and were finishing our morning grooming, but were as yet undressed. Naked, as a matter of fact. And, the phone rang.
It was our real estate agent and he wanted to show the house in 20 minutes! Twenty minutes? You’ve got to be kidding, I thought. No, he wasn’t. Um, er, well, sure I muttered, but our cleaning lady will be here in a half hour! Surely that would delay him, I prayed. Nope…no problem, we’ll just look around her! Okay, I said very hesitantly and hung up.
“Who was it” R wanted to know. I gave him the bad news. He looked at my nudity and I at his and we burst out laughing. Getting ourselves ready and the house ready in 20 minutes was going to require a miracle. Just getting our daughter’s room ready usually takes us an hour. K, I yelled at my daughter, the realtor is coming in 20 minutes. Mobilize! And, so we did.
Replaying the scene in my head it was like one of those keystone cop silent movies. None of us said much but we sure moved around a lot, bumping into each other, throwing things in drawers, under beds, under sinks, in the car, and in the dishwasher. In exactly 19 minutes we were ready and waiting. No one showed up except the cleaning lady and she decided to wait for the realtor before starting her chores.
And so we all waited on the front lawn, holding dog and cleaning items, waiting. Five minutes late. Ten minutes late. Then they arrived and got out of the car, but no one made a move toward the house. We waited some more. Finally, I went over and asked if they were the folks to look at the house. Yes, they were, BUT they changed their minds and didn’t want to see it after all. It wasn’t in the right location. Why the realtor didn’t know this ahead of time is still a mystery to us.
After 19 frantic minutes we all had rather ugly thoughts about the folks who wouldn’t come into our house and the realtor who thought they would. But, like all of these things that happen at the most inconvenient times, they end and life goes on! And that’s the naked truth!