When Dad Didn't Get What He Wanted

             September 19^th, 1953. Dad helped Mom into their old jalopy. Then he popped into the driver’s seat, started the engine, shifted into drive, hit the gas pedal, and tore down the road. He was a man on a mission!

            You see, Mom was in labor.

            Four+ years earlier, Tom and Ruth welcomed their firstborn. A daughter—the apple of Dad’s eye. His song for her? “Daddy’s Little Girl.”*

            With their daughter being cared for, they were on their way to have a son, Thomas Archer Burns, Jr. After all, Dad’s married siblings all had either a son and a daughter or two sons, so Mom would certainly bring forth a boy-child.

            It only seemed right in this era: 1) Have a son to carry on the family name. 2) “Call it quits” after two children.

            Labor was longer this time for some reason (that’s another story), but eventually a nurse came with the long-awaited news.

            “Mr. Burns, congratulations! You have a daughter!”

            A what? Wait! This can’t be right. We already have one of those.

            Dad didn’t get what he wanted that day. Instead, he got me.

 

           So, what did he do? Much to Mom’s surprise, he went out and bought a brand-new Chevy. Hey, if Dad couldn’t get what he wanted from the delivery room, at least he could from the show room—something to drive in style as he toted around his female entourage!

            But that car turned out to be a lemon.

            And me? Did he get two lemons that day? Maybe he thought so … for a short time anyway. But …

            Dad was our provider and protector. I never once doubted that he begrudged his role. And many years later I’d hear this ’n’ that about how glad he was he had girls and not troublesome boys. He’d seen too many of those.

            I was browsing through my baby book several decades ago. There wasn’t much in it, but I did notice an entry in Dad’s handwriting. “Gave Sarah Ann her first N-M-A.”

            “What’s N-M-A stand for?” I asked Mom.

            She laughed. “Your dad never was a very good speller. He gave you your first enema!’

            That put us in stitches! Then Mom became somber. I’m not sure why she told me the next part, but she did.

            “Your dad didn’t have much to do with you when you came home from the hospital. I worried a lot about that. It wasn’t until you were about three months old when he held you and prepared your bath. Then I knew it would be okay.”

            Maybe that should have soured me and made me go semi-nuts, needing years of counseling. But it didn’t. Why? Because I never truly felt unloved or unwanted.

            In fact, my earliest recollections are ones where Dad sat me on his shoulders and carried me around the grocery store while I clung to him for life—my arms wrapped tightly around his forehead. And he had silly names for me like Lulu and Mary.

            It may have taken Dad a while to get use to the idea he’d never have a son, but he did love his daughters. I’d even venture to say he was proud of how we turned out.

            That Chevy was a lemon, but not me!

            We don’t always get what we think we want, but God knows what He’s doing and gives what’s best. Dad learned that, and my sister and I did too—perhaps from his example because our dad taught us to trust the One Who chooses best for us because of His great love.

            Maybe you were born into a home where you weren’t loved or valued. Some of you may have been abandoned. You may find it hard to grasp that you’re a gift, not a lemon at all. Guess what! God says this: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” Psalm 27:10

            … like Dad carried me on his shoulders or a shepherd, his lamb.

            So good news, you who may think you’re a “lemon!” You’re not! There’s God in His Heaven Who loves you with an everlasting love and made a way for you to inherit that everlasting extension of His Love.

            He sent Jesus, His treasured Son, to die on the cross for our sins, raised Him from the dead, and welcomed His resurrected Son back into Heaven to prepare an eternal Home for anyone who accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

            There’s NO WAY Someone would do all that for you without loving you with all His Heart! You’re not a lemon. No way! No how! YOU are like the apple of God’s Eye!

            As for my dad and his Chevy? He got rid of that thing! But he didn’t get rid of me! So, happy birthday to me!

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday, ‘Lulu Mary!’ Happy birthday to you!”**

 

#happy birthday #1953Chevy #lemon #girldad #Psalm27:10 #valued #Godslove

 

Photo by Ryan Fincher, used with permission.

*Robert Harrison Burke, 1949.

**Now public domain.