By Rev. Pete Hyde
The small tent was set up in the backyard next to the pasture that bordered the northeast Kansas base housing subdivision. Two junior high boys were going to “sleep out” on a warm, breezy summer night. Meadowlarks quieted their familiar songs as the sun went down. The boys gathered with other neighborhood kids for a game of backyard touch football. The sun dipped below the horizon without any of them noticing until they couldn’t see the football any longer and they all drifted off home for the evening.
The boys cooked a couple of hot dogs over a coffee can filled with a few pieces of charcoal and washed them down with a cold bottle of strawberry pop. Marshmallows were roasted (burned) for dessert and they settled into the tent when the mosquitoes began buzzing around. They spent the evening talking about whatever seventh grade boys talk about when there are no adults around. To be sure, it was not an altogether wholesome conversation that accompanied the giggles of junior high boys.
Lights in the houses began to flicker out. The noise of the neighborhood slowly diminished. Crickets and katydids began their nightly chorus. As the night got quiet, the boys drifted off to sleep. Sometime in the night, the lonely wail of the train whistle in the distance woke one of them up. The train track was at least a mile away. The quiet of the dark night carried the cry of the train whistle as the train approached a crossing.
The awoken lad got up and exited the tent and looked toward the sound across the open Kansas countryside. There, in the direction of the lonesome whistle, was a passenger train – a Santa Fe Super Chief – making its way toward Topeka in the middle of the night. In the daylight, the red and silver engine and cars were a sight to behold for children of all ages. Lights shone in the individual windows of the cars. The lighted dome of the observation car glowed like a beacon in the dark Kansas night. The whistle cried out once again. The boy wondered who was on the train. Where were they going in the middle of the night? Where was their journey taking them?
Every time I hear a lonesome train whistle, I remember that night and I reflect on my journey. From those seemingly carefree days of childhood and youth (Only carefree when you look back on them as an adult with adult problems and issues) to the step into retirement, I wonder in the night about the journey. Many times, it too was a lonely journey in the night led by the wailing, lonesome train whistle. But most of the time it was a wonderful journey filled with joy, anticipation, love, grace and the presence of God.
As I head to my granddaughter’s house this morning to spend the day with her, I thank God for the journey, as rough and lonely as it was at times. “God if this is where the lonely nights of the journey have ended up, I am glad you were in control, even when I wanted so badly to be in control.”
I pray for each of you and the journey God has set before you. No matter where you are on that journey – in the darkest of night or the glorious light of presence of Almighty God, He is with you.
- Marlin Hedges writes in “Finishing Well” by Bob Buford (good read):
When I walk to the edge
Of all the light I have
And take that step into
The darkness of the unknown
I believe one of two things will happen.
There will be something
Solid for me to stand on
Or I will be taught to fly.”
Jeremiah 29: 11-14a says: “For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.
Rev. Pete Hyde serves as chaplain with the South Walton Fire District
Author: Sowal Editor
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