Rocking Between Two Worlds

Saturday night we went out to eat at Cracker Barrell. I enjoy dinging there. I love the old time feel and down home food. Turner and I looked all over the walls at the decorations seeing how many things we could identify. An old wooden tennis racket in a wooded case. A pitchfork, yoke, boat paddle, along with old pictures. He loves the checker boards. I love feeling like I walked right back into Papaw's and Mamaw's house back in Lufkin, TX. I grew up playing with stick horses, pop guns, Saturday morning cartoons, jeans, boots and Old Betsy, my bb gun. I had boots and one pair of sneakers. I either rode my single speed bike or ran most places to play. Punishment meant not getting to go outside to play. I played until just before dark, staying outside until the last possible minute. I walked or rode my bike to school in elementary school. I found the crossing guard too slow and cut across without him to hurry home for the game with all my friends.

Walking into Cracker Barrel feels like walking back in time some ways. We enjoyed the food. I ate breakfast. Brenda ate grilled chicken. Turner had his usual of chicken and dumplings with two sides of more dumplings.

Afterward, Brenda and Turner wanted to look around the store. I excused myself to a rocker outside. I love a good rocking chair. The contrast of the old time feel inside, and blur of traffic on I-20 with multitudes of patrons brought me back to reality. I rocked in the glow of neon signs for  department stores and restaurants. None of it was there when Brenda and I lived here nearly 30 years ago. Not even the Cracker Barrell.

Inside, I could find old fashioned candy and toys I enjoyed as a kid. Outside, I was hit with modern society. I rocked back and forth on that front porch reminding me of simpler times. I am thankful I serve a country church where it is still simple, but the city is fast encroaching on us. There are houses going up everywhere.

I live between two worlds on many levels. I sit in my office as I write. A simple office lined with custom bookshelves. Beautiful woodwork that has a rustic feel. Across the street lies the cemetery. Next door sits the tabernacle. I can often hear cows mooing  down the road. Pasture is located directly behind the church.

There is concrete everywhere in town. More subdivisions spring up all over the county. There are eating establishments everywhere. Our chairman of deacons told me when he grew up here there was only a Dairy Queen and a Dairy Mart in town. Times have changed.

I also live between the worlds of Runaway Bay, TX, where we have our home, and the parsonage here in Weatherford next to the church. I have part of my clothes here and part over there,, as I split time between both houses. I have actually awoke in the night forgetting which home I slept in and ran into walls.

I often think living between life on earth, and my citizenship in heaven. I reside here, but I am increasingly homesick for Beula Land. I dwell here, but wait for that land that is fairer than day. I show up for work here, but one day I will show up for my first day in heaven when the Roll is Called Up Yonder. I look forward to my mansion on a hill top where I  will forever find It is Well With My Soul. One day, in the not so distant future I'LL Fly Away. Today, I stand on Jordan's Stormy Banks and cast a wishful eye. I am constantly reminded This World Is Not My Home, and that I rock between two worlds.