Spontaneous outbursts of Humor by God.

Everyone thinks that their family is unique in one way or another...and sometimes mine can be a little more than unique. I love 'em. They're the best! This is a story that took place over Easter weekend...well, ok, just a little bit longer than that, about two weeks or so.

I think that God has an incredible sense of humor! Don't you just love it when the weatherman predicts 60 degree sunshine and we get about 5 inches of snow instead? That's an example of God's sense of humor. He's showing us (particularly the weatherman) that He is the only one who can control the weather, circumstances and our lives! Anyway, God's sense of humor can be a little quirky at times...and that's what this story is all about.

I have three siblings, which pretty much means that there are six people living under one roof. Six people use a whole lot of stuff... tissues, food, clothing...oh, and toothpaste. Lots and lots of toothpaste. It's kind of hard to economize on stuff like toothpaste without having to take a trip to the Dentist...and in the long run, it's a lot cheaper to buy $4.00 worth of toothpaste than to pay $600 to get a few cavities drilled out.

Anyway, it was the week before Easter. We were eating all sorts of sweet stuff and junk...and we were also down to the dregs on toothpaste. Not a good situation. Kroger had had a big sale on toothpaste the week before and Mom had gotten two new tubes of it. Unfortunately, when I went to look for it I couldn't find any.

People who know me for a while know for a fact that I am no good at finding things. Seriously...I'm awful. If there was a frog in the freezer I probably wouldn't see it. So, typically I am not the best person to ask when it comes to finding stuff...especially food items. But on this rare occasion I was right- there was no toothpaste. Period. Even mom couldn't find it.

By the time it got to Easter Weekend, our toothpaste was pretty much non-existent. What remained had been evaporated to wax-like gunk. If I had needed wax for my braces that would have been the stuff to use. Anyway, after church was over, my family and I took a road trip to Chatham, VA to visit my grandparents...actually it usually ends up being more of a family reunion 'cause half the family lives within 150 meters of each other.

...secretly I think that everyone was hoping that Grandma and Grandad would have some toothpaste so's that we could have thoroughly clean teeth for the first time in a few days.

Did they have any extra toothpaste? Well, the answer to that one was no. In fact, they were almost out of toothpaste too. Maybe it was a virus or something...

Anyway, I usually brush my teeth twice a day...which means that I would have brushed them 4 times during our stay. In reality I only brushed them twice for obvious reasons.

Things were going pretty well. I drove for the first time, Nearly gave Dad a heart attack, and semi-invented a recipe. The boys spent alot of their time down at the pond fishing with Great-Uncle Charles' fishing lures and poles. On our last night, Grandad took them down there to fish for big-mouth bass. They were having a great time enjoying each other's company...until Jeremy accidentally lost Uncle Charles' fishing lure in the water.

Poor Jeremy. Everything alwasy happens to him! Of course, sometimes that's his fault, but this time it was purely an accident. Naturally, Grandad made Jeremy and Tim walk the 100 yards past the farm to Uncle Charles' house to apologize.

Now, Uncle Charles is a great guy. He used to raise Ostriches, llamas and donkeys. No kidding. As a kid I would have the best time going down to see the animals. About two years ago he got rid of all the animals and went into landscaping. For some odd reason, his work gives him all this free stuff that he doesn't know what to do with. So, right before Jeremy and Tim left the house, Uncle Charles called and asked if we could use some toothpaste.

Does Billy Graham have a bible time?

So, as it turned out, we ended up with 10 tubes of Clean mint, tartar protection, cavity stopping toothpaste. We gave two tubes to Grandma and Grandad because they were out of toothpaste too.

Isn't God's sense of Humor great? it's amazing how he takes care of us...even in the littlest things ...

...like toothpaste.