Against All Odds

There once was a young boy that grew up below the poverty line in a small town in west Texas called Jacksboro. Jacksboro was the westernmost settlement in Texas after the Civil War and was subjected to Indian raids until Fort Richardson was built in 1870. The military presence provided safety for the settlers that numbered several hundred. In the shadow and safety of the fort, the town began to grow. Additional growth occurred when the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad arrived in 1898. The Gulf, Texas, and Western railroad came through 12 years later. In 1900 the population broke 1,000 and by 1930 it had almost doubled – many people brought in by the discovery of oil in nearby Bryson and Antelope. In 1936 it grew by one . . that was the year my dad was born.

Almost four years later and 1,600 miles away, another woman in New York City would complete her family by giving birth to a daughter.

Queens NY has a lot more history than Jacksboro TX since the first settlements occurred from 1635-1643. Queens was one of the twelve original counties of New York State created in 1683. Some 300 years later the Long Island Rail Road was electrified. Transportation to and from Manhattan vastly improved when the Queensboro Bridge was completed in 1909. Other railway tunnels under the East River and other bridges were built that allowed Queens to connect with the New York City subway system and roadways as the rapid popularization and use of the automobile allowed the population of Queens to more than double to over a million people by 1930.

If ever two people were unlikely to meet and fall in love, get married and have children, these particular two certainly would not have been odds on favorites. Against all odds, they did. Sometime in the fall of 1963, human passion tempered by human love and affection, provided the biological chemistry. Almighty God was pleased to provide the spark of life to create a human soul. In the summer of 1964, 44 years ago today . . . I was born in Flushing Meadows, NY.

Thank you mom and dad! Thank you Lord God! With all my heart and soul, thank you!

For this reason, I do not concern myself with the passing of the years. I believe in a God that exists outside of the limits of time and space. I believe He created me with eternity in mind so I try not to get bogged down in the mire of the things of this temporary world that is fading like a worn out garment. I believe He will be able to resurrect the dead as easily as He gave life to begin with or as easily as He called the worlds into being and sustains them. He was doing pretty good before I was born and I suspect He will be doing just fine after I am dead and burried. For me, to get worried about getting old is like the ocean worrying about getting wet because it is raining. Besides, I figure I am probably going to die in a car wreck because someone is too busy chatting on their cell phone, or even worse, trying to text message someone else and not paying attention to the road.

I would love to stay and chat some more but the candles are melting (dang, they light up the whole living room now!)and so is the ice cream!