A Tale of Two Empty Tubes

When Chris and I graduated from Texas A&M, the graduates were so plentiful, they had three separate graduations. Our parents came into town, the U-haul was packed and ready for our move to Little Rock and we cleaned like crazy (to get that wonderful $150 deposit back from our Sonnenblick apartment). I graduated with the business school on Friday night. Chris was to graduate on Saturday afternoon. On Saturday, we had turned in our apartment keys and had vacated our first home. The U-haul was parked and ready to go, and we all headed to see Chris graduate.

Chris has a wonderful sense of humor…God does, too! Why do I say that? Wait and see…

We wait the full 2 hours and watch for Chris. Chris gets his tube and quickly opens it, as he walks to his seat. He glances inside and puts the lid back on. Then he looks at us and turns it upside down, mouthing, it’s empty. No diploma here! Ha! Ha! Ho..ho…Mmmm. He sits down and we wait another 45 minutes. Then we get in the van together. Chris says, “There really is no diploma. Just a sheet of paper saying I haven’t met all of the requirements for graduation.” He’s not laughing anymore. “What???” I say, “The only reason we are moving to Little Rock is for YOUR graduate school! What will we do?” So, we travel with our parents back to E. Texas for the night. The next day, we move into our new apartment. We have no job. Chris has no degree. What will we do? Chris’ parents laugh it off. “Oh, it will be OK,” they say. Humph, I think.

There isn’t a thing we can do until Monday morning. So Monday finally rolls around…my eyes are red and puffy from crying. Finally, the offices open at 8:30 am. Chris calls…by 8:32, Chris finds out that “Oh (ha ha), we misapplied a class. We’ll send the diploma in the mail. What’s your new address?” I am infuriated! How could they misapply a class? Why didn’t they ask earlier? They would have saved us a world of worry–me anyway.

So we moved to Little Rock for 2 years, while Chris got his masters, I went to work. It was a wonderful time with godly people all around us. We were so blessed! Chris got a job at Libbey Glass and we moved to E. Texas in February 1996. He didn’t get his diploma, yet–they came out in May. May rolled around and I got the mail. A letter…from University of Arkansas. What does it say? “Dear Chris, I’m sorry, but you haven’t fulfilled all the requirements for graduation.” This time how did I react? I laughed…out LOUD! I said, “OK, Lord I get it. Yes, this is quite funny.” I called Chris at work and he called UALR. What did they say? “Oh (ha ha) we misapplied a class. We’ll send your diploma in the mail. What’s your new address?”

You see God does have a sense of humor. I think He laughs a lot, not derisively, mind you. He just thinks that we need a couple of similar situations to get our attention. He is trustworthy…He can be trusted. If only we would. My sense of humor? Well, it’s gotten better. I think a lot more is funny now. And trust? Well, I am trusting more and more each day.