The Call

The flakes came down fast.
Flashing red lights flared from the other side of the highway.
The rarity of snow in Dallas were making the roads dangerous.

Sunday school classes were canceled.
So was iSPY.
The youth didn't know to be excited or sad.

It has been almost a month since we had met.
Today was when we were to decide our T-shirt designs.
Today was when we were to do our Hội Chợ Tết game booth planning.

It was National Vocations Awareness Week.
We were going to talk about how each of us has a vocation.
The word "vocation" comes from the Latin vocare, a call.

Cindy & Thái was going to share how they met, heard their heart's call, and got married.
I was going to share how I was called to be a sister.

I made a phone call when I got back to the convent.
The stories were random.
The teasing was boisterous.

The snow was a "call" to curl up in an afghan.
To luxuriate in the voice of a friend.
To realize today may be the last day one is alive.

I still missed my iSPY kids.
I'm still irked that mine, Oanh's, and our adult volunteers' planning is knocked off-kilter.

God's call comes soft as snow.
Exquisitely gorgeous or stunningly dangerous.

Why else would many not dare to live fully as Christians?

Photo: A picture of my niece, Emma, on a glorious autumn day. This pix breaks with all my usual conventions of choosing a photo. Emma came into the world with a cleft palate. As a girl, it can be detrimental to her future. This picture exquisitely shows her spunk as she tries to tie her shoe laces. As her aunt, I am not going to be too worried that she will be "slowed" any by her physical appearance.

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