I wasn’t expecting The 700 Club to call me for six months. They’d told me just two weeks prior that it’d be at least that long before they’d have a production crew assembled to travel down to East Texas to shoot a few testimonials for the program. But I believe God changed their schedule…for no small reason…
On Tuesday, August 11th, 2009, I received their call: “Diana, we know it’s short notice, but do you think you could travel to Tyler? We’d like to shoot your story this Friday.”
I hung up the phone and promptly booked a flight home from Austin the following day. I then immediately began packing too many outfits and scheduled a spray-tan appointment (film set lights are unforgiving, especially for those of Welsh and Irish ancestry 😉 ).
While coaching boot camp at 6am the next morning, I was the only one facing the right direction to marvel at a shooting star awakening the dark new dawn. I think God scheduled that, too.
My dad walked in from work as my mom and I were having an early dinner. As was his get-home ritual, he walked over to the table and hugged us both.
He had just visited me in Austin the previous weekend, yet exclaimed as though he hadn’t seen me in months, “Big baby! Good to have you home!”
He then showed us a drawing of the famous 1833 Leonids meteor shower.
“There’s going to be a spectacular show tonight! I remember watching this meteor storm in 1966 when I was 14. I tried estimating how many I could see each second. I guessed about fifty,” he said proudly. “Astronomers said later they were falling at a rate of 144,000 an hour.”
My mom and I exchanged quizzical looks; math is neither of our strong suits.
Dad smiled amusedly, then relieved us of our puzzled stares: “That’s 40 per second. Not a bad guess for a teenager, is it?”
Dad had an uncanny way of boasting. He did so playfully, endearingly, with a twinkle in his eye that could dissolve any perceived tinge of pride in a nanosecond.
Mom and I oohed and aahed appropriately, and we all agreed we’d stay up late to watch the celestial display. My mom then excused herself and left for Bible study.
I had a radio interview scheduled for 8 o’clock that night and normally would’ve carried my book and Bible into my bedroom to study, pray, and review talking points until the host’s phone call. Instead, by what I can only attribute to a subtle, yet unmistakable, unction of the Holy Spirit, I chose to forgo my typical prep time and, instead, spend an invaluable hour talking with my dad in the kitchen.
I’ll finish this “God-wink” in my next blog post. The day that began with a brilliant shooting star would end, some would say by coincidence, with a fantastic flurry of heaven’s lights blazing across our country sky.
No telling when God unleashed the Leonids in eternity past, but I have no doubt He used them to celebrate the graduation of a beloved husband, friend, and father into an eternity of radiant Light.
Stay fit, stay faithful ~<3 Di