Of Batteries, Charging, And Fathers

 Two weeks ago or so when I got my Thanksgiving week schedule from Produce (A)Isle, I was a little surprised.  I expected not to work on Thursday (Thanksgiving) as it is a desirable shift and time and a half (and a shorter work day, which means the full time people have to be balanced in).  What I did not anticipate was not working on the preceding Tuesday.

That was a surprise as I had not asked for the time off and if there is any day I work during the week, it will be Tuesday.  Again, I chalked it up to balancing schedules and looked forward to the evening off.

Until Tuesday actually happened.

It started out with a dead car battery, which I was able to jump and get on the road - now running a bit behind.  It continued when I had to return home, having realized about a mile away I had forgotten my computer bag with its computer.  And it had a grand ending when, walking out of the office, the car was dead (again), precipitating a call home to get Nighean Bhan to come down and give me a jump after an attempt from a coworker' car met with bitter failure (due mostly, it seems, to the placement of their battery effectively under the dashboard of their car).

By the time I rolled into the house it was well after 1800 in the darkness, where I then had to take action via a battery charger to charge my car back up.

Pulling the battery charge down (A Black and Decker Model, back when that brand was still a thing) always makes me think of TB The Elder, who bought it for me.  I cannot remember the precise moment he gave it to us, but I am sure it was before we had moved to New Home.  Undoubtedly he had given it to me after some incident where a battery went down.  Unlike a lot of things I have owned over the years, the charger remains in pristine condition, inside its barely worn box.  Plugging it in and listening to its clicks as the slowly charges and looking at the pristine cords, I was reminded of my father.

And then it struck me that had I been working that evening, I would have been completely stressed about getting to work and then working while I had a car in the parking lot that I did not know would restart or not and then having to come home and charge the battery. Instead of being stressed, I was at some level of peace - also some level of aggravation of course, and a little bit of disappointment as my evening plans had fallen apart, but peace.

It is remarkable to me that, looking down the corridors of eternity, God took the time to apparently see ahead that I would not have a working battery that particular evening and so kindly arranged it so that I did not have to work.  It is less remarkable (in that sense) but no less comforting that a gift my father gave me years ago continues to provide for us even though he is now gone.

Fathers - Eternal and earthly - continuing to look after us even though we cannot see them.