A Thing For Trains

I’ve had a thing for trains since I was a little kid. When I was three, my parents lived in a trailer house and I loved it because I thought it was a boxcar. Long before, of course I made my first million selling horned toads to Northerners.

So it’s been a big deal to me to ride trains all over the world. The Silverton/Durango train in Colorado, a bullet train from London to Edinburgh, Scotland and even sat on top for a four-hour ride in North East India. I have even made the perilous journey through Forrest Park on the miniature train that starts at the Ft. Worth Zoo. The Brewer’s got guts.

There’s a restaurant in Pantego, Texas called Campo Verde that has a model train running up near the ceiling and through the house as you eat. Every time I go, my A.D.D. kicks in and Leanna has to order for me. There’s something romantic and adventurous about trains to me. I tend to love things that are going places.

Circus Train

A few months ago I was at Keith Neil’s backyard for a plate of his world famous bar-b-q. His place is positioned beautifully in a mature pecan orchard and his property ends at a railroad track. While we were literally and figuratively chewing the fat, a North bound train blew by destined for parts unknown. The discussion changed to trains he had seen pass by through the years.

We talked about army trains with rockets and how I had seen The Freedom Train blow through Joshua in 1976. He topped mine by describing the Ringling Brothers Circus train and from there everything goes a little fuzzy. My wheels started spinning. I had never seen the circus train. How could I live through 41 years and never see the circus train? This had to be part of my bucket list of things to do before I assume room temperature. Right then and there I decided to go home, get on the Internet and find out when the Ringling Brothers show would rumble down the tracks in my neck of the woods.

But I didn’t. The week got hard. My life got busy and in a very little while my duty to responsibility bullied away the simple dream of chasing down something out of the usual.

So when I turned the corner last Tuesday night and saw the Ringling Brothers’ Circus train right in front of me, it was like an Elvis sighting! Man I was thrilled. Leanna and the kids were not sure what the big deal was but I was yelling, “Look, look, look!”

66 cars, I counted. The same number of books in the bible and all the while I was thinking how incredible God is that He answers the simplest of prayers. Then as we headed back towards the house, it occurred to me. I had never prayed that prayer.

Now God gets my attention when He answers prayers but He really gets my attention when He answers prayers I never even prayed. Sometimes the Lord sees stuff in our heart and brings those things to pass just because He loves us. I’ve heard Garth say thank God for unanswered prayers but I want to thank God for answering un-prayed prayers.

That makes me want to be really responsible, not just in my prayer life and thought life but also in my WANT LIFE. The things we want matter to him. King David said that out of all the things he wanted in his lifetime, it really boiled down to one thing.

One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. Psalms 27:4

Like David I want to live so close with God in such a way, I see how beautiful He is every single day of my life. Even if it’s through a circus train.

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