Swing it Forward

For Wilshire Baptist Church

It was one of those crazy, amazing coincidences that can’t be explained but just enjoyed – and paid forward when the opportunity comes.

After nine years of Texas weather, our porch swing was falling apart. The chains were rusting and the fake poly wicker was popping off in pieces, exposing the metal and wood frame underneath and generally looking shabby. Saturday afternoon we visited a couple of specialty stores we thought might have swings but they didn’t. We decided to look at Lowe’s on Northwest Highway before going home and shopping online, which is how we got the first swing.

Lowe’s didn’t have anything either, and we were headed for the door when at the next aisle we saw a friend we haven’t seen in several years. I felt awkward about that and hesitated, but LeAnn called out his name and that led to a nice moment of greeting and catching up with handshakes and hugs. When he asked what we were looking for and we told him, he didn’t hesitate to tell us that he had a porch swing in a box at home. His wife bought it for him as a gift but it had never been unpacked and assembled because it wasn’t right for their space. “It’s yours if you want it,” he said, and we looked at each other and were like, “Uh . . . sure!” We traded phone numbers so he could text us a photo, but then he asked if we had time to stop by the house nearby and check it out. We looked at each other again and said, “Uh . . . yes,” and a few minutes later we were there and we reunited with his wife as well.

The swing was exactly what we were looking for – size, color, material. If we had gone to an “Every Type of Porch Swing Possible” store and shopped around, the swing in the box would have been what we would have chosen. We were more than ready to pay for it, but we were told, “No, just pay it forward.” He explained that someone had recently given him an expensive bicycle and wanted no money for it, and now he was doing the same with the porch swing.

As remarkable as the gift of the porch swing was, the bigger gift was reconnecting with friends we’ve missed. These types of separations happen for many different reasons, but there’s definitely a certain holy feeling about these unexpected reunions. In this case, it felt like God was saying, “OK, I’m gonna give you another chance at this fellowship thing I’ve given you to share.” I can’t help but feel there’s a sort of setup in the works when you’ve been going to different stores and you stop at one at the precise moment to cross paths with someone you haven’t seen in ages and who has exactly what you’re searching for. So, we’ll be looking for some way to pay it forward – or swing it forward as it happened in this case.

Meanwhile, standing on a ladder on Monday to take down the old swing, a dove suddenly burst out of the Boston fern hanging nearby and fluttered around in the tree just off the porch. I moved the ladder to take a peek and found a nest with one hatchling and one white egg. Momma dove came back to the nest while I went to the garage to get some tools, and I was careful to be more quiet as I hung the new swing and made some adjustments. No doubt the doves will use the new porch swing as a place to land when they begin flying lessons in a few days. I won’t stop them. After all, the swing was a holy gift and meant to be shared.