My friend Carol and I were having lunch in Franklin (TN) a few years ago (which is just 6 miles from where I live in Spring Hill) and because she is a music business type person she knew the young couple walking in the door of the restaurant and they knew her.  "Hey, Carol,"  he said, giving her a hug.  They held a small Chinese baby and told Carol they'd just returned, the day before, from getting her.  They'd adopted her.  "What's her name?", asked Carol and the father said, "Shoahannah".  As I watched the conversation I saw a glow of love in the eyes of these people.  Special people, obviously.  And it was Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth.  Nice people.   And I'm in the middle of writing an article about adoption for a magazine cover story, and the magazine wants me to speak with him about the three girls he's adopted, except one of them was tragically killed this week.  I've been thinking about Steven Curtis Chapman the last few weeks, so this story is a little closer than it might have been.   

There's something wrong with the universe when a child dies. There is no explanation.  There is no rhyme or reason.   And God seems far away when a child dies.   But if anyone is close to the Chapmans right now, it's God.  And if anyone understands the unfairness and tragedy of the death of child, it's God.  He agrees that there's something wrong with the universe when a child dies.  God's grief over watching a child die was so great that He watched His own child die.......so that whosoever believes in Him will never die but have everlasting, non-ending, eternal life.    I'm praying for the Chapman family. God understands their pain.  And He will comfort them.  Somehow.  Through others.  Through His Spirit, the Comforter.  Because God is the only one who has the power to comfort a parent when a child dies. 

People in the news are arguing that God didn't make marriages to be exclusively between one man and one woman.  They are saying two men and/or two women can be married.  I won't get in to the ridiculousness of their argument.  Same sex marriage? It's  too funny for words.  What the world really needs is "same-temp" marriages.

Evidently God has decided that in addition to the aggravation of trying to understand the opposite sex, we must do so while one of us is ALWAYS cold, and the other one is ALWAYS hot.  Every marriage has a "hottie" - a person who is always warm; who could use a breeze, or a cooler temperature (this would be the normal person in the relationship).. AND.. a person who is always cold: who doesn't need a breeze and could stand a warmer temperature (this would be the abnormal person who's body lacks blood, evidently or hormones that cause hot flashes).

The real marital battles are fought in front of the thermostat. The real marital scars are often sustained from the battle in front of the air conditioning button in the car.   There is no hope for this problem. Well,  of course this is not true.  There is ONE solution:  if the coldies would just go get a sweater and put it on... or if they're STILL too cold they could get a blanket and wrap up in it with the sweater?  Couldn't they???  OR..put socks on your feet.. and.. then another pair of socks.  Or put a scarf across your nose that is "so cold".   The point being that a "coldie" can get warm but a HOTTIE must sit there in the stifling, humidity of a Tennessee evening and.. do.. what to get cooler?????  I ask you???? A person can only take SO MANY things off.. ya know?  And  it's just HOT stifling, non-moving Tennessee air and you're just HOT. HOT. HOT.  (assuming of course that the couple in question happens to live in Tennessee..not that I'm talking about US.. oh no.. not us!!!)

Wouldn't it be so much easier if God would allow same-temp marriages?  Two HOTTIES? Or two COLDIES?   There's always a hottie and a coldie.  "Why?" is one of the first questions I'm going to ask when I arrive in heaven.. which will be the PERFECT temperature for everyone.