Finding God’s Light in the Valley

I got in the car and started it. I always drove on our trips because Ken drove so much during the week, the last thing he wanted to do was drive while he was on vacation. Besides, he liked to tinker with gadgets or work on his computer. I couldn’t’ even read in a car without getting dizzy. But the real reason was that I couldn’t stand his driving. My backseat driver comments, antics and “watch outs” were certain to spoil our fun and frazzle my nerves. That much we had figured out! As I waited in the car, Ken went inside the house to conduct a last-minute check and set the alarm. I thought about Thanksgiving being his favorite holiday and I reminisced about our Thanksgivings in Miami before we moved to the woods. He would get up early in the morning and go boating on Biscayne Bay to watch the sunrise. He described it as his only time of the year that he was able to have “alone time with God.” My thoughts were interrupted as Ken got into the passenger side of the car. As he began to buckle his seatbelt, with a sense of urgency he said, “Wait!.” “What’s wrong?” I asked. “My phone. I can’t find my cell phone.” “Okay, I’ll wait while you check inside.” He unlocked the door, turned off the alarm and shortly thereafter came out without a phone. “Call my cell phone so I can find it.” I called the cell phone and he went back inside. He leaned out the back door, “Did you call it? I can’t hear anything.” I again called his phone from the car. He came outside, locking the door behind him. “It’s got to be out here. It’s not in the house.” I kept calling his phone while he retraced his footsteps outside. First to the back, then to the shed, then to Sassy’s kennel all the while head bent down searching the ground. Nothing. Suddenly, as he walked by the empty first kennel next to Sassy’s, he heard it. He approached the car with a very puzzled look. “I can’t believe it. It was in the first kennel but I didn’t go in there. It was on the wooden floor in front of the doghouse. I wasn’t even in there.” I thought to myself, he had to have gone in there to get a dish or something because it certainly didn’t get inside an 8-foot fenced in deck by itself. At this time, I just shook my head and didn’t say anything. We had made it this far without an argument and I didn’t want to spoil our moods. So off we drove to begin the festivities of Thanksgiving.