My dad handed it to me and said, "Now this is yours." I was nearly speechless. I think I muttered some pathetic, "Wow, thank you. This is now my new favorite gun."
I've been collecting Colt revolvers now for some time. My dad started it all by giving me a Colt .22 modified revolver that his father had purchased upon coming home after World War Two. It came with family lore of dad and his brother dropping it in the creek behind their house, to be retrieved by grandpa the next day.
It was a Police Positive and I'd spend years collecting the other calibers in the line: a .32-20, a .38, and .38 Special. I'd researched them all on line and traced their serial numbers to learn their history after procuring them from various gun shows and pawn shops.
But the gun that my father handed me now... it was a much more expensive model. It was a Trooper .357 Magnum Mark III. It was the premier choice of a line first manufactured in 1953, primarily to policeman, packing a powerful delivery of gunpowder on a mid-frame 6 shot revolver. I had admired it for years... and now my dad handed it over to me.
There are times in life that seem pivotal. In this moment, each member of our family is leveling up in life: Caleb beginning online courses with Cedarville University, Aleksandra transitioning to a self-driven online education, Sterling beginning Kindergarten, and Kellie masterfully coordinating all of us monkeys.
This is indeed a time of significant passings to my hands. I hold the Colt as a tangible and real reminder that this is the time that I have been prepared to grasp. Now is the time where I reach out my hands to receive a legacy that is being given. This is due to the heritage of my family and my identity as a child of God who continues to seek Him. All our days lead us here.
Our search continues for the congregation that God is preparing for our arrival. We gather the possibilities as we cast ourselves at the feet of God. We give God praise.
Like King Jehoash when he knelt at the feet of Elisha, may my hands be guided to cast vision like arrows shooting through a window. The advice of Elisha rings through the centuries... grasp the arrows and strike again. Jehoash when told to strike the ground with the arrows struck only three times and then stopped.
This is not a time to stop. This is a time for our family to now strike again. We grasp in our hands this moment with all the transition and all the change. We hold onto all that we've experienced like arrows ready to be released. And we grasp these arrows tightly and we strike again.*
Like the bullet released from an exploding firing pin of a classic revolver, like the arrows shot through an ancient window in Israel... may we strike again.
*The story of King Jehoash and Elisha was told by Pastor Shawn Wood at Freedom Church in Monck's Corner, South Carolina on the 21st day of August, 2016.
*Scripture Reference: 2 Kings Chapter 13:10-18.
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