DOWN HOME:
'Sonar sounding' makes difference at end of day
___Kissing in the dark is kind of hard. Actually, the kissing part isn't so tough. But finding lips in the dark can be extremely difficult--especially if you've just turned out the lights and your eyes haven't adjusted to the immediate onset of darkness.
___This may not be a big deal to you. But for more than 22 years, the last thing I've done at the end of almost every day is kiss Joanna goodnight.
___The Apostle Paul advised, "Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry"
(Ephesians 4:26). If he'd been a married man, he might have said it this way: "Don't let the day decline without kissing your spouse goodnight." Or something like that.
___So, we've been kissing each other goodnight for as long as we've been married. What a terrific way to end the day.
___The only problem is finding each other's lips. (OK, we could kiss before we turn out the light, but it's just not the same.)
___Several years ago, to help things along, I started sending out a signal. Jo would turn out the lights, and I'd make a "smmmmmk, smmmmmk" sound with my lips. Sort of like sonar or a low-tech global positioning system. It was just a little sound to let her know where my lips were.
___But she didn't like it. "Sounds like you're trying to call the dog," she told me. So, I quit.
___That, by the way, was when we went through a phase of kissing each other on the nose, chin, forehead, eye and cheek. Nobody can hit a target without a quality aiming system.
___Eventually, Jo decided we could do better than this. So, she started the sonar sounding for me. As soon as the lights go out, she'll go, "smmmmmk," which guides my lips to hers. No more smacks on the wrong parts of the face.
___For the record, I don't mind if it sounds like she's calling the dog. When I call our dog, Betsy, for a treat, she's just thrilled with the attention, much less the treat. I'm at least as grateful as my dog.
___I have a friend who's deaf in one ear, and it just occurred to me that I need to check out whether hearing in only one ear messes up your sense of auditory direction. Because if I ever go deaf in one ear, I'll want to wait to take out my hearing aid until I get my goodnight kiss.
___OK, so this is silly. And you feel like our daughters do when they tell me as I ramble on, "You've already told me more than I want to know."
___But a kind of darkness descended on our world a few weeks ago. You may desperately desire the kiss of God upon your life, a grace reminder that you are loved and we will get through this. You don't have to send out a sonar sounding. God knows where you are. Simply open your life to God's touch, and be blessed.
___After all, as Charles Wade is fond of telling us, we are loved.
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