Get My Checkbook

It was a mad dash to the minivan.

We had snacks, we had water cups—though they may or may not have been filled with water—and all three kids were stampeding toward their car seats at the same time. It was even rumored that all the kids had shoes on their feet.

From the looks of things, it would be a successful roundup. (Over the years, my husband and I have somehow figured out how to do this without the use of a lasso or child hypnosis. I know, I’m a little surprised myself.)

I slipped the diaper bag onto my shoulders, shoved my feet into high heels and fastened my watch as I shuffled toward the van (because, as usual, we were late.)

At the push of a button, the van door slid open slowly and I tossed the diaper bag inside. The Elder Child was already fastened in her seat in the far back, her nose pressed to the pages of a book. The Baby was perfectly imprisoned in his pumpkin seat.

From the other side of the van, my husband’s hands furiously worked the buckle on the Middle’s safety belt. He glanced up at me with wide eyes. I’d seen that look many times before. Heck, I was comfortable with it plastered on my face. It was the look of having forgotten something.

“What is it?” I asked. Baby’s milk? Baby’s paci? Shoes? Did the kids not have shoes after all??

“Will you go get the checkbook?” my husband asked.

The checkbook? The request slapped me senseless for a moment. What in the world would he need a checkbook for in this age of digital spending? There was nothing we even needed to buy, for heaven’s sake.

But, there he was, wide-eyed, his hands still fidgeting with Middle’s five-point harness. I took off at a sprint—well, as close to a sprint as one can get in heels—click-clacking through our kitchen to the place where we keep the dusty, nearly forgotten checkbook. For a moment, I stared at the antiquated pieces of paper.

Did he want just one check? Or the whole book?

The whole book would be even more unusual than just one…but hadn’t he asked me to get the checkbook?

I shook it off. The moments I stood gawking at blank checks were moments wasted.

Get the checkbook.

I grabbed the short stack and clomped back through the house to the van.

“Did you get it?” my husband asked, strapping himself into the driver’s seat.

I nodded, somehow out of breath.

“Thanks so much.”

I handed him the blank checks. “Why did you need these?”

“Today’s the last day to get raffle tickets for the Fall Festival and it’s the church’s biggest fundraiser. I wanted to help.”

I nodded again, and finally it all made sense. His request. My response. Everything.

My husband’s request was rooted in love and service, and my response stemmed from absolute trust in him.

Because I know him so well, I trusted him, even when he asked me to do something that made zero sense. And, because I know my husband so well, I sprinted in heels—without knowing why—to do what he asked, trusting that whatever I was doing was good and important.

And it was.

I sat shotgun as we zoomed toward church. What if God asked me to go get the checkbook? Do I know him well enough—trust Him enough—to sprint off in the direction He asks me to go? Especially when it’s cloudy and vague and makes no sense?

I frowned in the front seat, knowing the answer.

When it comes to God, I usually want specific details and a fully laid out plan.

Yet, so often when it comes to God, His requests are the kind that slap us senseless for a moment.

But they are always, always rooted in love.

All I have to do is trust. And then take off sprinting.