Where’s Joel?

Where's Joel? This is the 3 minute question. When Joel first began to walk, and up until recently as well as some today, we began to ask “Where’s Joel?" every 3 minutes. But even with the 3 minute check, we lost him a few times. One of the first times occurred right after he had turned three years old. My wife was in the kitchen and I was in the bedroom and Joel was in his room. Or was he? I heard the proverbial “Where’s Joel?” and answered, “In his room!” A few minutes later she asked again followed by a “Are you sure?” “Yes” I said but with a question in my tone. I quickly walked to his room and realized he was gone. We covered the house in a short time but could not find anywhere. While the back door was locked, the front door was open so we tore out the front door and she went left and I went right. Several houses down the street I found some of my wife’s shoes on the sidewalk. I ran quicker and saw an older teenager holding Joel, assuming the worst I ran breathlessly to the boy who had a big smile on his face and was bringing Joel back. He told us he had seen Joel cross the street and recognized him as ours. Once again, the angels surrounding Joel had to work overtime, but they did their job.

Once we got over the incident and I promised I would actually check on Joel rather than assume he was still where he was three minutes earlier, we found ourselves laughing as we imagined him in his underclothes walking down the street in ladies shoes.

The “Where’s Joel” practice did not help one Saturday when we went to Six Flags in Arlington. As we exited a ride, Joel twisted out of my grasp, got separated from us, and took off running the in the wrong direction we were going. Within a few seconds, he was lost in the crowd of thousands and completely out of our sight. We took off running in his direction but could not seem to get through the crowd, plus we had two other boys to keep close to us. I told my wife to watch the boys and I would get Joel. As I yelled “excuse me” and looked frantically for Joel, I heard above the crowd, “We have Joel, don’t worry.” As I got closer to the voice, I saw some acquaintances from church who happened to be at Six Flags that same day. They had recognized Joel and grabbed him for us.

Angels take on many shapes and sizes from friends to acquaintances and neighbors. While not everyone out there is good, the good ones are in abundance and make the world a better place. To those people and countless others I say thank you.