Would Never Have Imagined

By Traci Hubbard

Hebrews 11 Roll Call of Faith shared in the reflection

When does a joke become a dad joke?

When it's apparent

 Where and why do you need resilience right now?

In 1989, my mother told me, “Honey, the only normal people you know are the ones you don’t know very well. So, you are as normal as I am.”  At the time she was saying this to me, I was asleep with my eyes open. Now I understand and I no longer wish to be normal. I wish to be fully who I am. And I wish for the same for you. We are all sons and daughters of Mysterious Unfailing Hilarious Resilient Love. Our Eternal Parent who shelters us, heals our wounds, picks us up, stays up with us, feeds our minds, nourishes our souls with thunder and cool grass, sandcastles and make-believe, warm fresh peaches, and cold watermelon…. kisses on our heads and cheeks, back tickles, and lullaby’s.

My parents divorced when I was three and my mother remarried a beautiful soul when I was five. Ted C. Peters Jr., and I called him Da. Da’s family owned seven different companies and were prominent in city politics and helping the marginalized. Money was never a worry until the recession in 1979. Each custom home Da built cost $100 per day as it sat on the market. My junior year in High school was particularly tough and one day after school, my mother took me to the entrance of White Lake Hills, an upscale subdivision Da’s family had created. A small real estate office had been torn down and all that remained was the slab. We parked fifty yards away and Mom said, “Look how much he loves you, Traci. His father is paying him fifty dollars to bust up the slab and remove the concrete from the premises. Da is doing this so you can go shopping for a new Homecoming dress.”  

I loved and respected my stepfather, but in that moment, my heart grew ten sizes and Da became larger than life to me. My humble and real Daddy, the man who adopted me, believed in me, and wanted me to feel pretty at Homecoming. Da taught me that if I really wanted to do something, I would find a way. If I didn’t, I would find an excuse. When the recession hit in 1979, he worked 18 hours days and ate Frosted Flakes at midnight. He taught me how to bait a hook, cast a line to a specific area, and wait for a bite, and then how to catch and prepare fish. Da helped me with my math homework and one time, when I was particularly frustrated with an equation and yelled, “I hate math” Da said, “There are three types of people in the world. Those of us who are good at math and those of us who are not.” He knew I needed a laugh.

 When the love Da gave out was not being returned, he loved anyway. He would have never imagined that who he was with me, how he showed up in my life, helped lay the foundation for my personal life and ministry. He was an architect, builder, land developer and owner of a lumber and real estate company. He would have never imagined he thew resilient heart developer of a strawberry blonde little girl he nicknamed Ruby Doobie. He infused his love for the ocean into me, and I was five when he took me to Corpus Christi where my soul found it’s sanctuary in the sands, waves, tides, and beachcombing for the least of these…for the storm survivors and pearls of great treasures.

The last time we were together was in June 2017 when my little brother died. It was one hundred degrees and humid and the electricity was cut off in my brother’s apartment. I sweated like a one-armed paper hanger as I cried while cleaning and packing up my little brother’s possessions to be given away. Da came over and brought me iced tea. I will never forget him walking through the door and saying, “Hey little girl, you thirsty?” His smile and blue eyes giving me strength as he looked at framed pictures and cried. He said, “I’ll do the fridge honey, it’s going to be stinky, and I know how you hate smells and spiders.”

We worked for Teddy, and for Mom who came down with pneumonia the day after she discovered Teddy dead in his apartment. We worked with few words because language failed to describe our feelings and all we were discovering about Teddy as we shut down his life and his home. It took us four days…four long summer days to respectfully consecrate Teddy’s life and before we shut the door to a bare apartment, barely able to walk, we smiled and hugged each other… silently whispering I never would have imagined this, but we did it. I miss Da and his dad jokes like every time he put the car in reverse, and I mean every time, he would say, “Ah honey, now this takes me back.”

Moses never imagined becoming second to Pharoah and leading Isreal out of slavery.

Abraham looked at the stars and could not imagine his descendants outnumbering them.

Solomon never imagined how having a thousand wives could drive a wise man crazy.

Esther never imagined being at the wrong place would be the right time.

Elijah never imagined he would be more than a cave dweller who lived in fear.

Jeremiah never imagined he could choose to be more than a whiner.

Joseph never imagined a dungeon would lead him to guide Pharoah and forgiveness.

David never imagined that his murderous and humiliating choices and their consequences would create in him a new gentle and humble heart.

Jesus never imagined how betrayal and radio silence from God would fashion a Spirit of Love and Help who is with us today.

Mary Magdalene and Lydia never would have believed they were preachers until they encountered risen love on the margins.

Paul never imagined he would be an inclusive community of love builder instead of an exclusive hateful stone thrower.

And the disciples never imagined their lives would be turned inside out by a Carpenter from Nazareth who they all died for, even one upside down.

Rahab, a prostitute in Jericho, never imagined demonstrating remarkable faith when she lowered a scarlet rope for Israelite spies to escape leading to saving her family.

Tamar never imagined being a front runner for social justice and redemption.

Ruth, a widow, never imagined marrying and becoming the great-grandmother of King David.

Bathsheba never imagined being the mother of the richest and wisest man in the ancient world.

And Mary, a teenager in Nazareth, never imagined giving birth to a soul who would live what love is and change the world. All these women in Jesus’ genealogy.

The five women in Matthew 1 never would have imagined that their existence prepared the way for a new consciousness.

And maybe, just maybe, a year ago, none of us would have imagined that we would be here together today percolating a new thing to be and do with the Spirit. I am resilient and so are you.

Hebrews 11 begins with. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what our ancestors were commended for.  And the chapter ends with these eight verses:

And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

The humans who fathered us imagined who we wanted to become, and they lived with faith that they were creating a better world where we could fully be ourselves, rising into our gifts, caring, and sharing and bearing all things as a father’s love does. Most fathers did not physically experience the freedoms and opportunities their children enjoyed, but know this…their faith did, and we are their faith in motion. May we continue to rise, use our voices, share our resources, and pave the way for all the children in our world, for when one suffers, we all suffer. Rumi wrote, “God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.”

There is no King but Love.

No Crown but Grace.

No Throne but mercy. 

Build your resilience on these rocks. 

These people lived with faith and hope. Our world has always been in need of both. We exist on the shoulders of these ancestors. May we live, love, and fly with the faith of our Creator alive in us, like we have never imagined. May we remember this truth this week, amen.  

And … Dogs can't operate MRI machines. But catscan.