Delighted All Along... and at Long Last!

Having grown up in Detroit, the Motor City, cars run in my blood.  I have yet to buy my first foreign car.  In Detroit, if you didn’t buy a new American made car every two or three years you were not a loyal American.  My dad was bit by the new car bug at least every two years and sometimes more often than that.  I will always remember his 1964 metal flake gold Oldsmobile 442 convertible with a red interior. After a couple of years he passed it on to me, and I had way too much fun driving that muscle car along Woodward Avenue.  As a result, over the years I’ve spent far too much money buying new American cars.  Some of them were great (like the 365 horsepower Ford Explorer Sport I now own).  Some of them were awful (like the Chevy Citation whose hatch I had to prop open with a broom stick).  Some were fun (like my Dodge Neon with a sunroof and a four on the floor). And some were rather forgettable (what year was that Buick something or other?).

There’s one car that I will never forget, however.  It was September of 1956, and as usual all the new car dealers up and down Woodward Avenue had papered over their showroom windows in anticipation of revealing their newest models.  I was just seven years old, clinging to my father’s hand as the dealer unlocked the showroom doors and let the public in for our first glimpse of the new 1957 Chevys.  I’m sure there was at least one iconic 1957 Chevy Bel Air on that showroom floor but that’s not the car I saw.  The one that caught my eye and captured my heart that day was a Corvette convertible.  It was a gorgeous shade of blue with white coves and a white interior.  I drooled all over that car while my dad walked around looking at the more practical, family oriented options.  “Someday,” I thought, “I’m going to own a Corvette.”

God had other plans, however, and called me into the pastoral ministry, which made it impossible for me to even consider such an expensive and impractical automobile.  Nevertheless, I still nurtured a secret passion in my soul for that two seater that would snap necks on take off, and turn heads as it flew by.  I’ve inwardly drooled over just about every generation of Corvette ever since.  The 1963 split window coupe is an all time favorite of mine.  Unfortunately, I didn’t really love the C4, and 5 iterations nearly as much as the early versions.  Somehow the smoothed-out fenders with bug-eye, pop-up headlamps never really did much for me.  But when the C6 Corvette came out in 2005 I fell in love all over again. 

Then, in 2014 Chevrolet did something that pushed me over the edge.  For the first time since 1983 they brought back the Stingray nameplate.  When I first saw a picture of the C7 Corvette Stingray online the styling took my breath away.  I knew I had to own one, but how?  Then, almost unbelievably, God graciously provided a once in a lifetime financial windfall that actually made it possible for me to consider such an outlandish idea.  At last, after almost 60 years of “wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin', plannin' and dreamin’ each night of [its] charms” (thank you, Dusty Springfield), I finally ordered my own 2016 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Z51 coupe.  I was able to justify it, in part, as an investment, since it won’t be my daily driver.  Although it may never sell for more than its purchase price, it will retain a significant portion of its value for that day when my kids decide to sell it, after I’ve enjoyed it here on earth and can no longer drive it, or have moved on to better things in heaven.

I am delighted to praise the name of the gracious God I serve.  Throughout my entire lifetime God has consistently met every single need in my life.  I have never wanted for anything I truly had need of.  And on top of all that, God has time and time again fulfilled my wishes and longings for things that I really didn’t need, but only wanted to enjoy.  In fact, God has been so good that there were only two things left on my "bucket list." One is to ride my bike in France and watch a stage of the Tour de France.  I'm confident that God will one day make that too happen.  The other was to own a Corvette.

This gift of God's grace is one more example of His divine goodness, of which there is absolutely no merit or worthiness on my part, whatsoever.  It is just amazing that God would be so kind and generous to me!  But all of this is perfectly in line with the promises of His Word. “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear him.” (Psalm 145:18-19)  In this incredible piece of automotive engineering God certainly has fulfilled the "driving" desires of my heart. What else can I say but, “Thanks, Lord!”  Incidentally, that's the license plate I chose for my new "Vette." THXLRD!