My family and I went on a winter getaway to a cabin in Mammoth one year in January. I was newly freed from being a teenager and had become masterful at feigning confidence, as one does. One day, my Dad and my three brothers decided we should go rent snowmobiles and make a day of it. After arriving at the rental place, my Dad goes to rent the five snowmobiles, and the agent counts the men before him and gets to me. I stood there with my walker, trying my very best to look like I was using someone else’s walker just for fun. The agent saw through my facade somehow and eyed my Dad with skepticism. Meeting his eye, my Dad packed in a whole lot of meaning behind the words, “He’s fine.” My hopes soared!
I quickly learned how snowmobiles worked as I kept up with my brothers along the trails. We followed our guide through a particularly dense forest, bobbed and weaved, and I got a feel for it. We hit this expansive meadow blanketed with fresh, untouched snow. It was truly beautiful and we all gunned it! We opened it up and just tore through that serene meadow like nobody’s business. We were all family, indistinguishable, just five Duncan guys having an unmitigated blast! It was awesome!
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that
we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
1 John 3:1a
The most wonderful thing was we were together, and I felt the importance of it. That’s how it is being children of God! We fit because the Father said so, like my Dad’s, “He’s fine.” We fit, defying even our expectations sometimes. To say I am blessed by my family is a massive understatement. My Dad included me and inadvertently demonstrated how the Father includes us all.
Jonathan Duncan
EFCC Member