We Are Here

Some years ago, I would have occasion to drive through a suburban area of Wichita, Kansas City, or even smaller communities like Salina, Great Bend, or Hays.  As I drove through and saw all the newer homes, fescue lawns, and three car garages, I always thought I would never, ever have a home like that; nor would I want one.  We lived in rural areas for most of our married life, and I was raised in a small town.  I couldn’t fathom living some place where one had to drive more than a mile or so to go to anyplace one wanted to go…bank, grocery, hardware store, work, school.

And the fescue lawns were not for me.  Always they needed fertilizer, mowing, weeding, watering, attention.  Bermuda grass was my preference.  I won’t even start on the three car garages that I thought of as a symbol of excess and waste.

God evidently has a sense of humor, because we now live in a suburban area of the largest city in Kansas.  We have the fescue lawn, large garage, and there is nothing within a mile of our home that we can drive to and take care of some kind of business.  The grocery is four miles.  The bank is the same.  Work is 10 and 15 miles respectively, for me and for my wife.  Even the grandkids live about 6 miles away from us…more than half way from Harper, where we used to live, to Anthony, our nearest community neighbor.

I don’t know quite what to make of all of this.  I certainly don’t feel like a “genteel suburbanite,” but I have to play the game.  We don’t annoy the neighbors.  We maintain a respectable “distance.”  We cut our grass weekly and water it regularly.  We don’t keep junk in the yard.  Even our garbage can is stored inside the garage so it doesn’t show.  The house doesn’t need paint.  The bushes are trimmed.  I attack the dandelions regularly with the 2-4D.  And I keep the weeds out of the cracks of the drive with Roundup ™.

One thing I do know is that we are where our Father wants us at this time and in this place.  If He wanted us somewhere else, we’d be there.  So while we are here, and I haven’t a clue how long that will be, we’ll make the best of it even if I have to become somewhat more “genteel” than I sometimes have been.