Perspective

Boy#3 suffered his concussion during a New Year's Eve party. He and another similarly hard-headed teen smacked noggins during a rowdy game, and Three got the worst of it. During the ensuing eight hours, he was as confused as any New Year's reveler could be. He repeatedly asked what had happened, what day it was, where he was.

"What day is it?"

"It's New Year's Eve, Three."

"You mean I missed Christmas?"

"No, we had Christmas."

"What did I get?"

"You got a tuxedo."

A long pause. Then, "Did I want a tuxedo?"

I tell this story to remind myself that last night's accident will become part of the family lore, and that we will share amusing stories about it some day. Now that we know that Boy#4 is sleeping, as prescribed by the ER nurse, we look back from the abyss of What Might Have Been and can see the skeletons of the stories that will survive. 

We'll talk about the accident itself, how Four rounded a corner on his bicycle and collided with a parked bike, flying over the handlebars and face-first onto a curb. We'll laugh about his painkiller-laced first call home, when we asked him when he would be able to return to classes.

"That's still up in the air," he said. "Come to think of it, I was up in the air today!"

Someone will bring up Boy#2's concussion, the first in the family, when he was 10 or so and was tackled into a landscaping beam during a game of yard football. "Hey, remember how he asked for a Kleenex and then started to eat it?" And we'll laugh again.

This morning I'm up while it's still dark and wondering what the earliest hour is that I can call and see how the night went. I'm thinking back over the messages from friends and knowing that all those moms were out there praying for my kid. Underlying all of this is a constant stream of thankfulness to a God who loves children, and took care of mine.

The lore is still unaged and unformed, not yet ripened. It will get there, though, and we'll look back on the pictures of the broken nose and stitched-up lip and laugh.

Just not quite yet.