Honor where Honor is due.

OK, everyone, now is the time that I am going to give honor where honor is due and then I will (hopefully) be able to quench my desire to tell everyone when I see them what a phenomenal dentist and artist Doug Milner is!!!! Here is the story:
My wonderful son Nolen was invited to a skating birthday for a friend at the local ice skating rink. Now, the main reason that I know that Nolen is so obviously Scott's son is that he can start any athletic activity and within moments he will master it and then begin to add more rules to make it more interesting, this applied to ice skating on this particular day. He hadn't skated in I don't know how long, and was doing REALLY well less than an hour into it. Well, a friend of his was not faring so well and Nolen went over to help him up and just as he and Nolen were standing up he fell again and Nolen went face first into the hard, cold ice. When he looked up relief filled Nolen's 8year old brain when he realized that he had not just lost his front tooth, just chipped it. Well when he came over to me (I was standing on the sidelines) a white hot feeling burst through me when I saw Nolen, I gave him a hug and said, "Hey buddy, what happened?" on the outside but on the inside I was crying for my son. side note . . . Scott and I have been working with Nolen and his singing for months now, and he has just gotten to the point where he is confident in the voice that God has given him and he SINGS OUT. He has a wonderful sweet voice that has at times brought tears to my eyes. I was afraid that his singing days were over.
Nolen's front tooth was *only* chipped, but it was chipped in half with a jagged point on the right side. The Lord was so gracious to us at this particular moment and emblazoned the Milner's home phone number across my mind. Now the fact of this is remarkable, because I haven't called the Milner's at home in years. Moments after I left a message Doug called me back and graciously agreed (on the Sabbath!!!! no less) to meet us and evaluate Nolen to see if he needed to do something that night or if he could wait until the morning. Now that he would consider rebuilding a front tooth by himself on his day off is amazing, but on a moments notice. Well, after meeting us and looking at it he concluded that it could wait until morning, and that he would call us later and let us know what time we should come in the next morning.
At 8:30ish the next morning we walked into the office and at 10:am we walked out. Nolen with a new tooth that noone has been able to tell was completely reconstructed. Doug added layer upon layer and matched every imperfection. It looks the same as the tooth beside it. In preparation for this procedure God directed Doug to a conference in California where he practiced doing this very thing a mere 2 months before. There are so many things that I have come to realize about Nolen since this happened. And how God loves him and is watching out for him.
#1 ~ God's plan is perfect. Nolen is the type of boy that will help a friend out no matter what happens to him. He is kind and self sacrificial. He is not vain.
#2 ~ It could be worse. Nolen was relieved that he hadn't lost his whole tooth. What kind of 8 year old thinks this way?!?!? He didn't cry because of the relief of that thought. He didn't draw attention to himself looking for pity he was just Nolen. Steady, calm, patient.
#3 ~ God will provide all that we need every step of the way. Where did that number come from?? Trust me I have not memorized the entire Trinity church directory or even a small part of it. I don't even know my closest friends phone #'s. I have a cell phone don't I? That is fodder for another post altogether.
#4 ~ I need to be more like my calm patient husband (and son). When I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible to get it fixed. Nolen wanted to get out and skate some more with his friends and have cake, general party hoo ha. And Scott, he patiently squeegeed the entire rink and scooped up all of the debris into a bucket and melted it down looking for Nolen's tooth. Talk about looking for a needle in a hay stack!
#5 ~ Everything that's important can be fixed, or cleaned up or reconstructed. When Doug looked at what remained of Nolen's tooth instead of a sharp intake of breath or a "Oh MY!!" he said, "Oh, yea we can fix that.". WOW. I am not sure if that response was due to the fact that Doug has been a dentist for so long that he has seen everything, so a boy with a jagged and halved front tooth is really not a big deal OR because he himself has 5 children and has seen it all and so it really was not a big deal or because Doug has been a Christian long enough that he know it is really not a big deal.

I am in no way saying that Nolen is perfect, but he is indeed growing in grace, and it is good to see it. It is so wonderful to see the fruit of a tree that we have been watering for years. And it is good.