Dan tiptoed out of the bedroom so that he wouldn't wake his wife, who had come down with a flu bug. He hadn't yet reached Scott's bedroom, when he saw the light come on in six-year-old Katie's room. Out she popped, all dressed for their canoe trip. Dan smiled when he realized that his daughter had slept in her clothes. "At least she was happy to go canoeing," he thought to himself.
His son Scott was a totally different story. Scott was a fourteen-year-old who thought he should have all the rights and privileges of a twenty-four-year-old, but he often acted like a four-year-old. In fact, Scott had been acting like a four-year-old all week long, as he tried every way he knew to try to get out of going on the annual family canoe trip. He had whined and pleaded. He had screamed and yelled. He had even tried tossing out a few dirty words, but that had just gotten him grounded for three days.
Scott was in full-scale teenage rebellion. His dad loved canoeing, and so of course Scott hated it. His dad wanted him to cut his hair short, so Scott wore it in a ponytail. His dad hated for boys to wear earrings, so Scott had five of them. And last night had topped everything. To get even with his dad for making him go canoeing, Scott had come home from the mall with his hair dyed green.
Scott had expected his dad would go ballistic when he saw the green hair, and maybe even get so angry that he would make Scott stay home from the canoe trip. But Scott was disappointed. His dad's eyes went wide when Scott walked through the door, but he never said a word. Then, just before going to bed, his dad had walked over to where Scott sat watching TV. "I know why you dyed your hair," his dad had whispered in his ear, "but you still have to go."
Now this morning Scott tried a new angle as his dad came in his room to wake him. "Dad, I'm sick. I think I have the same thing that's making Mom stay home." Then he gave a long, agonizing moan, and rolled around in his bed while holding his stomach.
"Oh gee, that's too bad, son," his dad answered. "But if you can't produce vomiting or diarrhea within the next thirty seconds; then I'm going to grab you by your ankles, drag you down the stairs, and toss you in the van!"
Scott could tell by his dad's tone of voice that he was going to have to go canoeing, but Scott was determined to hate every minute of it. So he threw off the covers and stomped into the bathroom yelling about what kind of father would make his children go canoeing when they were sick.
They had been on the Fast River for three hours, and Scott had not spoken a word the whole time. He had not lifted his paddle, and never even uncrossed his arms. He just sat like a lump in the bow of the canoe.
At first, Dan had been happy to get on the river. It was just the way he liked it. The river may be called the Fast River, but it was normally too slow for Dan. But the spring rains had speeded up the current a bit. The river wasn't in flood stage, just quicker than normal. And Dan had started out enjoying the trip. But after watching his son sit unmoving for three hours, all enjoyment was gone.
It was anger and spite that made Dan do it, but he aimed the canoe toward a big branch that hung low over the river. Scott saw it coming, but he resisted as long as possible. Then, just before the branch was about to smack him right in the face, he ducked down behind the bowplate. The branch swished over him.
Katie was not so fortunate. She had been watching a squirrel peek out from behind an oak tree, and had not seen the branch coming. Dan realized her plight too late. He lunged out to grab her, but the branch had already knocked her over backwards. The combination of Katie's fall and Dan's lunge rolled the canoe to the side, and all three of them were in the water in less time than it takes to tell it.
Katie and Scott shot to the surface. The cold water forcing them into action. Katie started crying. Scott started cussing. He was just about to yell at his dad when he turned and saw him floating face down in the river. "Dad!" Scott yelled. In less than a millisecond, all Scott's anger disappeared. In it's place were fear and dread.
Only a few feet of water separated him from his dad, but to Scott it felt like it took him a thousand years to half swim/half wade to his father's side. Quickly Scott turned over his father's limp body to get his face out of the water. This was no longer about rebellion, or getting his own way. Scott knew that instantly. He loved and respected his dad. He wanted to grow up to be just like him. In fact, that was part of the problem between them. They were already so much alike that it was hard for Scott to establish his own identity. That's why he wore a ponytail, and earrings, and green hair. But all that stuff was temporary, just until he established who he was. But the love they felt for each other - that was for keeps.
"Dad! Dad, are you okay?" Scott said as he pushed his father to the closest shore. He was not about to let his father die. Not here. Not now. Not after spending the whole week saying and doing everything he could to be hateful toward his father.
"He's bleeding!" Katie shrieked.
Scott looked more closely at his dad. He saw blood in the water, and blood on his dad's head. Then his dad started coughing, and he spit out water and opened his eyes. "Scott! Katie! Are you all right?"
Just then, Katie threw her arms around her dad, and she started crying all the louder.
"We're okay, Dad, but you're bleeding," Scott said. "I think you must have hit your head when the canoe rolled. You were unconscious."
"Where's the canoe?" his dad asked.
Scott had forgotten about the canoe. He quickly looked downstream. "There it is," he said pointing to where the canoe rested against a small sand bar.
"Can you catch it, Scott?"
"I don't have to, Dad. It's stuck on that sandbar." Then Scott looked questioningly at his dad. "Are you okay?" he asked.
"I can't see, Scott. I think that I must have hit my head really hard, because I can't see a thing." Then Dan spoke very seriously to his son, "Scott, we have to get back into the canoe and hurry on down-river. The car is still about two hours away, and if we don't get out of these wet clothes soon we're all going to become hypothermic."
Scott understood. His dad had been drilling first aid basics into him for as long as they had been canoeing together. He knew hypothermia could mean death. And he knew what needed to be done now.
"Katie, help me get dad up on shore. We have to bandage his head. Then I'll hunt for the paddles and bring the canoe back up here."
It didn't take long for Scott to put his plan into action. Soon, he had towed the canoe back to where his father and Katie sat on the shore.
"I could only find one paddle, but maybe we can spot the other one as we head down river," Scott reported. "Come on, dad. I'll help you get in."
As soon as his dad got into the canoe, Scott realized they had another problem. "Dad, there's a big crack on the center line of the canoe. We're taking on water."
"I can fix that," Katie said smugly. Then she stepped into the canoe, and quickly sat down on the crack.
"I guess you can at that," Scott said. Then he started to step into the canoe, but stopped himself. "Dad, you need to change places with me. If I'm going to steer, I need to sit in the back."
His dad thought for a minute. "No, Scott, you've never done the steering before. It would take time for you to learn, and we haven't got much time to get to our dry clothes in the car. Besides, I'm bigger than you, and that means that I can paddle faster than you."
"But you can't see where you're going!" Scott objected.
"You will be my eyes," his dad answered. "Just tell me when to turn and how sharply to turn, and I think we can do it."
"Okay, dad, but for the first time in your life you will have to listen to me."
"And for the first time in my life, Scott, I won't be afraid of what you have to say."
Dan didn't see his son's smile as he stepped into the canoe and pushed them away from shore, but he knew that something had drastically changed between them.
Two hours later they sat with the car heater going full blast. "How are we going to get home?" Scott asked. "I can't be your eyes while you drive the car. We'll get killed for sure."
"Well," his dad answered. "I have a little confession to make. My eyesight came back to me about half way down the river, but I didn't tell you because I was having so much fun trying to follow your directions. So, I just closed my eyes and tried to listen to every word you said."
"We were getting pretty good at it too," Scott said. "We were really working good together."
"Yes," his dad replied, "it felt like we were one out there, and it felt really good to me."
"My Sunday school teacher said that we are all one body," Katie interrupted. "Scott, you must be the eyes, and Daddy, you're the arms and hands because you were paddling."
"And you know what you were?" Scott asked.
"What?"
"You're the butt, because that is what you used to keep the canoe from leaking."
"Daddy, Scott said a bad word. Make him take it back. I don't want to be the butt."
"Scott, do you know that Bible lesson that Katie was talking about?"
"Sure I do," Scott answered.
"Then remember the part where it says that if one member of the body suffers, all will suffer together. You don't want to suffer do you?"
Scott smiled. "Sorry, Katie. I'm wrong. You're not a butt. You're a bellybutton – a totally worthless body part that does nothing but take up space on the body."
"Daddy!" Katie whined. "I don't want to be a useless bellybutton."
Dan laughed quietly to himself. That is exactly the same kind of dumb thing that he used to say to make his little brother yell. "I guess we have learned something about our being connected to one another today," he thought, “but there is still more room to grow in our understanding of this lesson.” He reached out and put the gearshift in drive, and started the car toward home.
Questions for Meditation, Discussion or Preaching
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
