Something rather cool happened yesterday.

See, two years ago my parents mailed us an antique mantle clock before they came for a two-week visit. The pendulum to the clock came inside a small separate box so my parents installed it for us after they arrived. But I didn't watch them closely. The whole process looked rather involved with them standing over the clock so I went in the kitchen and prepared dinner.

Well. Because of our upcoming move, it was the clock's turn to be packed into a box and I thought I'd better remove that pendulum. But then that scene with my parents peering into the clock's back returned to me and I knew that, most likely, that pendulum wouldn't exactly just slide out. It was gonna be harder than that.

I was correct. When I mentioned all this to Tom he said, "Oh, I can get it out of there. Easy." Or not. He couldn't figure-out just where the screws were, either.

But alas! He did come up with the best idea. He said, "How about if you just pour a bunch of those Styrofoam packing peanuts inside the clock to keep the pendulum from moving?" I told him, "Hey! That's a terrific idea."

So yesterday I placed the clock on a towel upon our table, turned it around, then began pouring in the packing peanuts until the pendulum could no longer swing at all.

And that's when the rather cool thing happened. Suddenly it was as though my dad was standing behind me, chuckling. And I even think I 'heard' him say, "Well, that's one way to do it." As though he found it clever.

It was so real! I even laughed because, usually my dad, while upon this Earth, believed in only one way to do things. The right way. Which was, yes, his way. And well, he could get, shall we say, a little uptight if you chose a different method.

But you know? Yesterday while feeling like my dad was standing there, I remembered that he's different now. You know, after having been in Heaven for two months. He's much more relaxed and carefree. He's no longer burdened by the cares of this world, tiny or huge, the ones which still burden us poor schmucks left behind. As God will finish-up in each of us what He's begun, God has completed the work he began in my dad and now I'm certain he loves all sorts of variety.

And there in the dining room I received a very real sense of that change. And I enjoyed it.