Top Down, Tree Up!

Top Down, Tree Up!

Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.

Isaiah 43:7

In late November 2005, I bought a brand-new 2006 Toyota Solara convertible in “Absolutely Red” with a tan-colored top. Ooh, it was hot! It was the first convertible I had ever owned, so I was feeling pretty spiffy and downright proud of myself. I just loved putting the top down and cruising through the neighborhoods, the wind blowing through my hair, the radio playing old-time rock and roll, and people watching me with a smile and a touch of envy.

About the second week of December, my friend Charlotte and I went shopping for a Christmas tree for my office. We found a pretty, seven-foot “pencil” tree in a square wooden planter box that would work well in my big eight-foot-high window. Of course, after I bought it, we couldn’t figure out how to get it into the five-foot-wide trunk of my car because the tree was too tall.

Aha! came the sudden epiphany. I put the convertible top down and set the tree in the backseat with the treetop sticking out where the car top should have been. Charlotte and I drove to my office with the top down, the windows up, and the heater going full blast. Thelma and Louise were on an adventure!

At a stop sign, a Texas cowboy in his pickup truck pulled up beside us. The Stetson-hatted driver glanced over, saw the tree sticking out the top and my friend and I freezing to death, did a double take, and cracked up laughing. Then he pulled out his camera and took a picture. I guess the opportunity was just too good to pass up.

Sometimes in life, when things don’t quite fit the way they are supposed to, you have to be creative, like the one who created us.

O Father, thank you for creating humorous moments and joyful days. Amen.