The Driveway

To the naked eye, this driveway doesn’t look like much.  For a moment, though, try to imagine it covered in snow, 6 inches deep.  It’s not super wide, but it is long.
 
This is the driveway to our first home.  I was 4 months pregnant with Gimme when winter hit.  Ace was working and going to school.  One night, I needed to shovel that monstrous driveway before I could pull my car in.  My sweet little Cavalier didn’t do well in snow drifts.

I parked by the curb and traipsed up to the door.  I pulled my boots and gloves on and started shoveling.  By the time I shoveled the small path to the driveway, I was in tears. I felt so overwhelmed.  The snow was heavy, the wind was blowing, and shoveling that driveway was a daunting task, and I had just barely begun.

Sometimes, my brother Kimball had to referee basketball games for the parks and rec department, so he’d drive from Rexburg, where he lived, to Idaho Falls, work, and then head back home. 

For whatever reason on this dark, stormy night, instead of hustling right back home, he detoured, and ended up sliding right up next to the curb in front of my house in his car.  He hopped out, grabbed a shovel  and started plowing.  That driveway was was cleared in no time.

I joked with him about how that huge task was effortless for him because of all the practice he had growing up.  When he was younger, he would shovel the driveway so that he could practice basketball. He’d be outside shooting hoops with his gloves on.  We laughed about that memory as we worked together.

He may never know that he was an answer to my prayer that night (And probably Ace’s too!)

Today, as I think of my brother on his birthday, I can’t help but appreciate all of the times he was an answer to my prayers, as well as his wonderful example of selfless service.


I miss him.