The other day, I stood on our back deck and noticed the lovely sky;
I watched as an azure sky kept changing its mind, as if it were trying to decide what shade of blue it needed to wear for the day.

I marveled as I watched it dissolve from one color of blue into another, then another, then another.
And the moving scene I watched reminded me of a season in my life, now long past;  A season dark and blue as any cobalt you ever saw.

I hadn’t thought about that season in a long, long time.
A dark time for me, had it not been for them.

Three separate and disparate souls who crossed my path.
In that short season that seemed like a lifetime —
An unlikely trio of individuals came to my rescue.

One was a pastor who cared, and came to my house.
A true shepherd of people,
Tending to one of his flock,
Demonstrating great wisdom.

He actually made what I suppose could be called a ‘house-call;
The day he came to my house to check on me,
He changed my life by his genuine care.

He encouraged me,
Not with what the Book would call ‘enticing words of men’s wisdom.’
He was just determined to know, and be … Jesus with skin on.

And then, there was the dad of my very best friend,
Another ‘housecaller.’
A dad who may not have known of my terrible, cobalt-blue darkness,
(But then again, perhaps he did.)

Every Sunday for an entire summer, and into that Fall,
He came by my house;
He went out of his way;
He gave me a ride to church.
As we drove along those city streets toward that house of worship,
He casually talked about God,
And life,
And “How ‘bout them Cardinals?” kinds of things;
Things I desperately needed to hear, to take my mind off of things I desperately didn’t need to hear, that were rattling around in my brain.

With an almost exquisite and intentional resolve,
His infectious stability and obvious character demonstrated something I really needed to see: what it meant to be a man. A godly man.

And then, there was her.
That choir director.
That lady who asked me to sing, … in the midst of my darkness.
“Sing,” she would say. “Sing songs in the night.”
And so I did sing.
And in the singing, I began to notice that the melody of my life could indeed change;
That the lyrics and blue notes of my life could be transposed, even transformed.
I will be forever grateful for those three, separate and disparate souls who crossed my path;
That trio who helped me sing a different song in my life

The Book says there was a moment in time when the Word became flesh..
And dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory.

And there was a time in my life when the Word became a trio of people, too.
The glory of God … with skin on.