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The Natomas Inderkum Junior Tiger football game was a little dreary today. It was cloudy and a bit chilly when Mark's team played. But they won, so it wasn't all bad.

When Max's team played, it started raining about as hard as it ever does in Northern California. (Those of us who have lived east of the Rockies would call it a light shower.)
When I came back from the concession-stand-money-collecting table, a mother (whose name I don't know) motioned for me to come sit under a pop-up-shade-structure-turned- rain-shelter. Max's game lasted forever, and ended badly, so it seemed even drearier. But sitting under our little canopy made the loss a little more bearable.

About a half hour into the Pee Wee game, a man had come up and teased "I'm leaving now, I need to take the canopy." "Ha, ha," we all laughed as we wrapped ourselves up tighter and squeezed closer together.

When Jack and Grant (our two youngest) got out on the field to play, it was cold and yucky. The rain was starting to blow, and the temperature was dropping. Someone got up and hung a tarp on the side of the canopy to keep the blowing rain out. The Mighty Mite game ended in a tie, which wasn't ideal, but it sure beat loosing.

I noticed toward the end of the game that the man I presumed to be the owner of the canopy was standing out in the blowing rain under a small, black umbrella. There wasn't much room under the cover now. I wondered if he had gotten up to get a drink and had come back to find his spot taken, and we were all too clueless to realize that we had crowded out the owner of our shelter.

It reminded me of the Hebrews who became slaves in Egypt because no one remembered Joseph anymore.

Or the ten lepers who were cleansed of their disease and only one came back to thank Jesus.

"Was no one found who returned to give glory to God, except this foreigner?"

That's what Jesus said to the one leper who came back and said thanks. (Luke 7:17)

How often do we enjoy life and family and caramel apple pie and a big, black suburban, and that new pair of great shoes, without even giving token credit to the one who brought the tent, set it up, and stayed long enough for the rest of us to enjoy it.

"Was no one found who returned to give glory to God?"

That's something I want Jesus to say to me, not about me.

I want to be the one coming back and "always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Ephesians 5:20)

Especially to the man who kept me dry all day.

"Voice of Inspiration" from Andy Castro

Pretzel Love-Psalms 91:14