Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Boilerplate

I’m Harold Dykstra.  I’m retired, but I go to food bank distributions all over Tracy and talk to people that need someone who will listen to their story.  My time is well spent.  A police lieutenant suggested that I write down the conversations that I had with an angel.  I did not know she was an angel at the time.  The angel, for a little over a year, indwelled a life-sized posable action figure my children bought me, so that I would not be perceived as travelling alone.  And in a way, she was training me for what I do while talking to the needy.  She probed my heart to find out what I believed and how I express love for others.  She changed my life.

In her leaving, she said someone would come.  I had thought that was Jesus, in His second coming, but a new Babs, a little older, the model for the posable action figure arrived.  While I had no desire to start over with romance, Morrie helped her move in, thinking she was the other Babs who had returned.

This Week’s Question

Last week, Babs and I helped reunite Françoise Franks with her mother.  And Gabrielle and Ben Franks discovered that they liked each other.

This week, we are still on our honeymoon, but we are on our way home.  The Newmans really did have some business to take care of, and when the other party had changes made to the contract, they delayed us going home.  With us getting back late with food bank distributions the following morning, I wonder if we will walk in to find Rev. Joseph Jones and his wife Mary already there.  They filled in for us last week and were prepared to fill in tomorrow if we did not show up.

We were welcomed aboard, and we each sat down with the Newmans sitting, facing the back of the plane, letting us sit facing forward.

Amelia came in and offered us something to drink.  “I apologize, boss.  Wiley was not feeling well earlier.  He is fine now but having him see the doctor and get cleared to fly, neither of us were here to do the preflight.  We have resubmitted our flight plan, but we will be delayed on the ground here.  There was some bad weather in Tracy.  Flights were delayed, so we hope we will have a window to land.  If you were in a hurry, we would have redirected to Stout County, since they can handle aircraft our size.  I have prepared a relish tray for you to munch on.  Once in flight, we have some seafood dinners ready.  Or are you ready for something different?”

Amy laughed, “No, let’s get all the seafood we can.  Did Wiley eat something he shouldn’t have?”

Amelia nodded, “We think so.  He is back to his old self, but he might have to make more restroom breaks along the way.  I could fly solo, but it is not recommended.”

Amy smiled, “We are fine for now.  I am sure you will return for the safety briefing when we are ready to taxi.”

Amelia smiled, “No, Wiley will do that.  We are flipping our roles.  He is going to be the co-pilot and flight attendant for our return trip to Tracy.  That way, he is freer to get up if he has to.”

Amy nodded, “We need to catch up.”

Amelia went back to the cockpit, and we each got ourselves a bowl of baby carrots, broccoli florets, sweet gherkins, and assorted cheeses.

Amy asked, “How was the rest of the honeymoon?  You had already toured the three cities when we saw you in Florida.  Did you get golf lessons on Hilton Head?”

I laughed, “I should have picked up the game, but I was always busy with the children and then travelling.  Babs has played a little bit.”

Babs snickered, “Not really.  I took some lessons for a scene in a movie where I was supposed to be a golfer.  I could swing the club convincingly, but there was no telling where the ball was going to go.  But I was pretty good at putting on fairly flat ground.  You put a bump in there so the ball changes directions and I’m lost!  Do you two play?”

Ralph E said, “We started taking lessons when Amy shut down the Monopoly madness at the Hoity Toity.  She was president, but suddenly she had no interest in what was left, that being the golf.  We play with the Levys.  They are beginners also.  Dinah runs our Trivia team competitions.  That didn’t sound very interesting, but you get those folks interested in a competition and they make anything interesting.  Dinah has flipped the rules when it comes to the winner at golf.  She says that the one that uses the most strokes is the winner, unless they lose all their golf balls before the end of the round.  Her thinking is that we are out there to have fun and exercise.  If you don’t swing the club as much, obviously you are losing out on the fun and the exercise.  And I will have you know that I hit an albatross at Hilton Head yesterday.  I’m getting pretty good.”

That was more than Ralph E said all the way to Savannah.  But I have heard that an albatross in golf is extremely rare, requiring distance and skill.  It was not something that a beginner could do.

Amy punched him in the arm.  “It was not an albatross.  You hit a seagull!  The poor thing fell to the ground and then went over to your ball and picked it up in its mouth.  Then the gull dropped it in the Atlantic Ocean.  That’s what you get for hitting the poor bird.  It’s lucky you didn’t kill it.”

Ralph E said, “When you explain it that way, it takes all the fun out of the brag.”

Babs asked, “What is an albatross?”

I said, “It’s a goofy bird, bigger than a seagull.  So, hitting an albatross is less impressive.”

Ralph E smiled, “Thanks, Harold.  But an albatross in golf is also called a double eagle.  It is scoring three strokes under par on a single hole.  Since holes have a par of three, four, or five, you can get a hole in one on a par 4 or two strokes on a par 5 to get an albatross.  You have to be a long hitter or the wind has to help.  And then it is a matter of dumb luck.”

Babs said, “’I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all’ (Ecclesiastes 9:11).”

Amy laughed, “I was wondering when we would get into a biblical discussion with you two.  That’s how you met, isn’t it?”

Babs laughed, “If you could call it meeting.  I had never darkened the door of a church in my life, but I was hiding at an assisted living home in Arizona, and every night, I would have a dream.  The dream was me having a conversation with Harold, a travelling salesman from the big city of Tracy.  That drove me crazy.  We had this pastor who would come by Sunday afternoon to give a sermonette.  I started attending those so that I could ask him about the dreams as we left the meeting room.  He and I discussed the dreams, and this pastor told me that God had a special plan just for me.  I accepted Jesus and the pastor took me to an irrigation reservoir.  He baptized me there.  And not long after that, the dreams stopped.  The dreams that drove me crazy at first were now my lifeline to life itself.  So, as the story has been retold, I sold everything … really I have a storage room in Tracy with a few pieces of furniture, some clothing, and other stuff.  Well, you might call it luck, but I arrived in Tracy the same day that Morrie advertised in the newspaper for a travel partner and caregiver when his father got older.  They had converted the upstairs bedrooms into a very nice apartment.  I called the number and immediately recognized the Dykstra name.  So, if you believe in luck instead of God’s providence, my story is too good to be true.  But that pastor was right.  God had a plan, and I am living it now.  And it is wonderful.”

All of what Babs said was factual, but it leaves a few steps out.  The Newmans might not believe the entire angel thing, but sometimes, I have to pinch myself to remind myself that those secret details changed the trajectory of my life and the life of Babs.

Amy smiled, “I have heard your story from other people, but It is nice hearing it from you.  And you think God planned out every bit of this?”

Babs smiled, “’The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.’ (Proverbs 16:33).”

Ralph E said, “Amy and I are new to Christianity.  We have studied a lot of the New Testament, and we kind of know the Bible stories of the Old Testament, but what is all this about casting lots?”

Harold said, “God told Moses to have his builders make a pair of dice, basically.  They were the Urim and the Thummim. ‘Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron’s heart whenever he enters the presence of the Lord. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord’ (Exodus 28:30).  So, in the breastpiece, there must have been pockets.  And the pocket over the high priest’s heart was where the Urim and Thummim were kept.  Then in Numbers, it says, ‘He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the Lord. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in”’ (Numbers 27:21).”

Ralph E shook his head, “Isn’t that just relying on luck?”

I replied, “Not when God ordains it.  And in a way, they let the Urim guide them by faith.  The decision was made by God and that is good enough for me.  All the time that Saul was king, he was head strong.  David inquired of the Lord, using the Urim and Thummim, before he did much of anything.  And when he got in trouble is when he did not consult God first.”

Amy sighed, “That’s amazing.  I wish God would give us dice like that now.”

I sighed, ‘We have the Bible.  But we need to read it with understanding so that we understand that half of our hairbrained ideas are things that God would not support under any circumstances.  Then we can see how the greats of the Bible were in certain circumstances like what we have, and we can learn what they did and what God did in response.  You know, that learning from our mistakes thing.  It’s not the same thing as rolling the dice and knowing that is God’s best plan, but with wisdom and understanding, it’s not half bad.”

Wiley came in to give us the safety briefing and tell us we were about to start taxiing.  He freshened our drinks.  We inquired about his health, and he said that he thought it was completely out of his system.  He also said we could rely on Amelia.  She would be a captain of her own plane by now if the two of them had not gotten married.  This was a great job for them to do what they loved, have great bosses, and the two can work together.

We were soon airborne, and Ralph E asked, “Would you like to retreat to your private cabin? But first, how do you describe your marriage thus far?”

I replied, “For Solomon who had 700 wives and probably lamented not having just one wife, he said, ‘He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.’ (Proverbs 18:22).”

Amy grabbed the corner of their trundle bed.  “Let’s let Harold enjoy God’s favor.  And if you are a nice boy, Ralphie, you might enjoy some too.”

Babs whispered, “I think this is our cue to skedaddle.”  Then she turned to Ralph E, “Solomon also said in another book, ‘Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun—all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun.’ (Ecclesiastes 9:9).”

Amy asked, “What is all this about meaningless?  When we get it going, we make it meaningful.”  Then she pointed to her baby bump which was just starting to show.

When we rang the bell a couple of hours later, Wiley was in the food preparation area.

The trundle was already rolled back under the table that formed their desks.  And as we sat down. Wiley came over to apologize.  “I wanted a low country steam pot, but I couldn’t figure out how to heat it up with what we have in the galley.  So, here are shrimp and oysters.  I know, you should have had the oysters before …  Never mind.  You might be in the mood again once you get home.”

All of us thanked him, but we were all turning red at the same time.  We ate the meal like we had not had seafood in a month.  Actually, for Babs and I, we had been enjoying barbeque and fried chicken the last couple of days.  We asked Francis if they were his chickens, and he said that he shows the fried chicken to the hens and tells them if they don’t lay enough eggs, there are other ways to enjoy you.  Francis says that the threat seems to be working.

Ralph E and Amy asked us a lot of biblical questions, and the next thing we knew, Amelia told us to fasten our seatbelts for the descent into Tracy.

We were a little disappointed that one of our cars was not waiting on us, but the chauffeur said he was told to park the cars in our garage and give us a limo ride to the front door.

We were curious.  When we first met Amy and later Ralph E, they had no chauffeur.  We asked and he laughed.  About three months before, he approached Amy at a feeding the homeless event.  He said he had always been interested in computers.  He had a few ideas for Dala Solutions, but he would rather have a job where he could learn how to develop the software himself.  Amy immediately suggested him be their chauffeur, and in his spare time, Ralph E could be his private tutor.  And so far, he was learning a lot, and he used Ralph E’s hideaway bed since Ralph E now sleeps in the penthouse.

While we walked into the house, Ralph E and Jeeves, the chauffeur, brought our luggage inside the front door and excused themselves.

The chauffeur’s name is not Jeeves, but that is what he answers to.  And Dev Yeggs has done a background check, and Jeeves, by another name, had been a driver in the Army with a perfect record.  The perfect job at the perfect time.

God was at work.

Credits

All these conversations remind me of my conversations with my wife.  We would talk about anything and everything.  And most of the time, it sounded like a discussion in a Sunday school class.

The pilots are Wiley (as in Wiley Post, first solo flight around the world) and Amelia (as in Amelia Earhart, who tried to be the first woman solo flight around the world). I have not decided on a last name.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.