Who doesn’t experience a bad dream from time to time. The one that really bothers me is the one where I can’t reach where I need to go. In it, I’m usually late for work or a class of some kind and I’m constantly being thwarted as I try to get there. When I wake up, I’m so frustrated that it takes me a while to go back to sleep. Last year I actually experienced one of those dreams.
Our grandson, Maverick Jace Bunch, was born 6 weeks early in August 2024. He spent the first three and a half weeks of his life in the NICU at Children’s Hospital. By the way, they did an awesome job with him. On Saturdays, Tim and I took shifts sitting with Maverick with his other set of grandparents. This worked smoothly until the first UT home game that month. I think The Vols played Chattanooga. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “You all knew about the game.” We did, in fact, on our way to the hospital, we stopped and bought Tim a new UT shirt. The problem was that we forgot it was an early game. That is until we got off the interstate and onto 17th Street and came to an abrupt stop.
Normally, it takes just a few minutes to drive down 17th Street and then turn right onto Clinch Avenue, which runs between Fort Sanders and Children’s Hospitals. But thanks to game day traffic, that didn’t happen. The longer we sat in traffic, the more antsy I became. “I said we would be there at 12. It’s almost that now!” Hearing the stress in my voice, Tim tried to calm me down. “It’s okay. We’ll get there. Besdies, Maverick has really good nurses. He’ll be fine.” That wasn’t enough for me in my agitated state. As soon as edged up to a side road, I told him: “We need to get there now! Turn up this side street.” He did just that. What I had yet to realize was that I had unintentionally caused us to step into one of my dreams.
My thought was that we would drive around the traffic with our little detour. I was wrong. Way wrong. In my haste, I had forgotten to take into account the all the housing for UT college students in that area. Some of them almost walked out in front us. I guess they didn’t think anybody would driving away from the game. So, we had to drive very slowly. That didn’t help my frustration at all. We also came across a couple of one way or blocked streets. Tim had no choice but to continue to zigzag around the Fort Sanders neighborhood. I felt my blood pressure rising, but it really shot up when he said: “I bet we could’ve already been to Clinch if we hadn’t turned off back there.”
I had been silently praying as we drove around on our so-called detour. I pray that way a lot. Well, God answered in that we somehow managed to reach Clinch Avenue. I still don’t remember how accomplished that. When Tim turned right and toward the hospital’s parking garage, I breathed a little easier. We were finally almost there. That’s when Tim said: “Oh no! I bet they’re letting game traffic park in the garage.” I felt my tension rising again. What would we do if he was right. There were other parking garages in that area, but they may have also been full of people parking for the game. Even if they weren’t, how could we back track to them with all of the traffic. When we pulled into the garage, there was a policeman standing in the booth. He was there to make sure parking was only for Children’s visitors. We told him about Maverick. He looked down at some papers for a few seconds and then opened the gate. After we parked, I told Tim: “It’s a good thing you didn’t change into your new UT shirt. That policeman may have thought we just wanted to park for the game.” He smiled at me and answered: “My shirt wouldn’t have mattered at all because Maverick’s name is on the list.”
“And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Revelation 21:27 (KJV)
Obviously, the only reason Tim and I were allowed in the parking garage was because Maverick’s name was on the policeman’s paper. It’s the same for Heaven. For any of us to enter into it, our name has to be written in the Lamb’s book of Life. Is yours?
After Sara and Jordan came back to the hospital, Tim and I left. He said at least the traffic wouldn’t be heavy since everybody was at the game. He was wrong. Very wrong. We pulled out of the parking garage and into heavy traffic again. Apparently, the Vols were so far ahead that people were leaving the game early. We didn’t know whether to laugh to cry.
Brooke Cox is an author, speaker, and storyteller. She was a 2016 Selah Awards Finalist for Debut Novel. Her children’s book: “Dinosaur Eggs,” is now available. It is based on Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. Her novel “Until the Moon Rises: A Conniving Cousin Mystery” is also available. Also, she has two books out in her storytelling series: “Saucy Southern Stories.” The Amazon links for her books may be found on her website: brookecoxstories.com. Please feel free to contact her. She would love to hear from you.