My mother gazed out of her side window. “Sorry honey. That’s a blinking light from an airplane.”

“You sure Momma?”

She paused for a second. “Yes, I am.”

My eight-year-old eyes continued to probe the star-filled night sky. I have always loved gazing into the Heavens, especially at night. I still do. But that night I was desperate to see Santa’s sleigh in flight. There was a horrible rumor going around my class at school that Santa wasn’t real.

I needed to prove he was real. Not believing in Santa was one step toward growing up that I wasn’t ready to take.

It was a short drive to my Mamaw Holbert’s house on Christmas Eve, so that didn’t leave me a lot of time to find the light from Santa’s sleigh. Unfortunately for me, I saw many red blinking airplane lights. Even now when I see an airplane flying at night, I think of that ride in the car.

On the way back home, I leaned my head against the back window. Why even bother to search the night sky? Maybe it was time I faced the truth. The disappointing truth.

Then I had an idea, but it was a long shot. What if I needed to be looking toward my house instead of up in the sky? When we drove past the spot where our house was on the other side of the ridge, I leaned forward and pressed my face into the window again.

Right above the tree line, I saw a humongous dazzlingt white light. Directly in front of it was a small red light. They both flashed and, in an instant, they were gone.

In those days, cameras had the flash with a large bulb. Let me tell you, when they went flashed, you saw spots in front of you for about ten minutes. To me, those flashes were almost painful. Well, this bright white light was the same kind of brilliant flash, except it didn’t hurt my eyes.

In my child’s mind, I knew I had seen Santa and his sleigh rise up from our backyard with Rudolph in the front. And the brilliant flash was them rocketing skyward before anybody could see them.

I jumped around in the seat and exclaimed: “I just saw Santa and his sleigh take off!”

“No, you didn’t honey. It was just your imagination,” My mother answered.

“Didn’t you see that light?” I couldn’t believe they had missed it.

“Neither one of us saw it,” my dad answered this time.

I knew what I had seen and I couldn’t wait to get home and prove them wrong. As soon as my dad stopped the car and shifted it into park, I leapt out and ran toward our house. My parents didn’t like that either. But once we were inside, I saw the presents Santa left behind.

“See! I told you!” I proclaimed as I ripped into them.

Needless to say, when I went back to school after the Christmas break, I told everybody in my class about my close encounter with Santa Claus.

That was forty-five years ago and I can still see that flash of white light in my mind. But, what did I really see? Was it just the imagination of a desperate child? Or did I see some other kind of marvel and interpreted it as Santa and his sleigh? Who knows?

At this point, it is just a fun and awesome memory that I can look back on and smile. And I am so thankful that I didn’t give up on finding Santa. If I had, I wouldn’t have had my little adventure.

Do I still look into the sky? Yes, all the time. It still fascinates me and it always will. Let me tell you, it is very spiritual to observe the Lord’s handiwork through a telescope. Even the shapes of the clouds are awe inspiring.

But now, I know there will only be One who will be coming in the Eastern sky one day.

“For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall the coming of the Son of man be.” Matthew 24:27

One spring evening, my daughter Sara’s softball team was playing the number one, undefeated team in their league. The other team were all 12 years old whereas Sara’s team were barely 10. We went in with no illusions of victory. If we were lucky, we may get one run.

At the top of the third inning,  Sara went up to bat. At this point, none of ours girls had made it to first base, which was no surprise. At least they looked cute in their red, white, and blue outfits.

The pitcher threw. Sara swung.

Crack!

To be honest, I was surprised she was even able to hit the ball since it wasn’t a good pitch. I think Sara just wanted to swing.

The ball sailed up high and came straight down to the shortstop, which is the position between second and third base. I thought the shortstop had caught the ball, but the next thing I saw was it hitting the ground between her feet. If you don’t play softball, a pop-fly like Sara’s hit should have been an easy out, especially for an undefeated team.

“Run!” I shrieked at the top of my voice. I knew this might be our only chance for a base hit. Plus Sara was one of the fastest runners on her team. If anybody could outrun the ball, she could.

Tim, her daddy, and some of her teammates in the dugout started to yell.

The shortstop threw the ball. I held my breath and scooted up on the bleachers. This was going to be close. Sara and the softball arrived at first base at the same instant. The first baseman missed the ball and with a loud clank, it slammed into the fence beside them.

I expected Sara to do what most ballplayers would’ve done in that instant; veer right. When you do that, you go off the playing field and into safety. Did my child do that? Nope. She turned and ran toward second base. She didn’t even slow down.

The yelling from our side intensified. Tim continued to shout in my left ear.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. She had a base hit. The only base hit so far. What was wrong with her? There was obviously no turning back now, so I began yelling, “Stop at second. Stop at second!”

The second baseman stood ready with her glove out. The first baseman picked up the ball and threw it. I scooted up a little more on the bleachers. My heart began to race.

Again, Sara reached the base the same time as the softball. It soared over the second baseman’s head and into centerfield behind her.

“Stay on second!” I yelled. This girl was pushing her luck. Did my child do that? Nope. She tagged the base, pivoted to her left, and ran toward third at high speed. That’s when I saw the dust cloud in her wake. It was bigger than she was.

“Stop at third! Stop at third!” I was shrieking with everything I had. But there was no way she could have heard me over the deafening roaring erupting from the stands.http://brookecoxstories.com/wp-admin/media-upload.php?post_id=616&type=image&TB_iframe=1

The third base coach had both of his palms out yelling, “Stop!”

The third baseman stood ready with her glove out. The second baseman hurriedly retrieved the ball and threw it. Again, Sara arrived the base the same time as the ball. I was now on the edge of the bleachers and I was pretty sure Tim was having heart palpitations. At that point I could’ve swallowed a bug and not even care.

The third baseman missed the ball and it slammed into the fence behind them just as it did at the first base line. Does my child stop? Nope. She tagged third and turned toward home plate. Again, no slowing down.

The crowd cheering reached a feverish pitch.

As Sara ran, I took a good hard look at her. Her face was blood red, she was gritting her teeth, and she was pumping her fists. I knew my daughter was plowing her way towards home plate.

The catcher jerked her mask off and stood at the plate with her glove out. Since the softball was so close, the third baseman quickly picked it up and threw it to the waiting catcher. It was as if everything was in slow motion.

I knew there was no way Sara’s luck could hold out any more. My heart broke for my child as I thought, “What an end to a glorious run.”

Again, Sara reached home plate the same time as the ball. I wanted to cover my eyes, but I didn’t. I wasn’t sure how much more my hearing or my heart could take. I grasped the bleachers with my hands to keep from slipping off of them.

To this day, I can still see Sara’s foot touching home plate and the ball sailing past the catcher. It slammed into the backdrop and rolled away.

The roar from our side was so loud that people on surrounding ball fields turned and looked in our direction. After the hoopla died down, I realized I had just witnessed a softball miracle. Sara got a homerun off of an infield pop-fly to the number one, undefeated team in their league. That should never have happened.

For one thing, all the other teams in their league were intimidated by the older team’s reputation and would give up before the game even started. In fact, I went in with the same attitude. And while Sara was running the bases, I was encouraging her to stop and give up.

But not only did Sara not give up; she defied them and they couldn’t handle it.

If that had been me, I would have limited myself to first base and I would have patted myself on the back for playing it safe. Unlike Sara, I would have never taken that step of faith off of that base.

Why not? In a word: fear. Not the fear of death or being hurt, but the fear of getting out. The fear of letting my teammates down. The fear of walking off the field with my head hung down. Did Sara not feel the same? After the game, I asked her if she had any fear while she was running the bases. She said no; she was just running.

That’s when I realized you can’t play it safe and expect spectacular.

You can’t run and live in fear at the same time. Sara had no room for fear. She was just running.

So dare to take that step off of first base. If you get out, it’s okay. At least you tried. But if you don’t take a chance, you will not ever know have far you may have gone.

There was a little irony to this story. After each game, the girls met up with the coach for a quick meeting. During that meeting, the same man who had his palms out and yelling, “Stop!!” said to Sara, “Way to go Sara! You all should do that.”

^“… He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 (NKJV)

“For if God is for us, then who can be against us?” Romans 8:31 (NKJV

Hey y’all, I am honored to be a part of this awesome festival. I will be there as an author and a storyteller. I will be telling the ghost stories and legends of Big Ridge State Park. This will also include an experience I had there a few years ago on one of their fun Ghost Hikes.

See you there!

Details:

Union County’s 14th Annual Heritage Festival will be Saturday, Oct. 6, 2018.
“Fiddlin’ Around”
Maynardville, Tennessee
10 am – 4 pm

The festival is a FREE family and pet-friendly event! Free parking and free admission. Ride the free shuttle to all venues.

People standing around me gasped. It’s one of those memories that doesn’t go away.

I was 19 years old and working my first real job in a grocery store. One of our regular customers was an elderly man who was always cranky. He never had a smile on his face and he never spoke to anybody in a pleasant tone.

When he came through my line, I said my usual, “Hi, how are you doing today?” He snarled and said, “I ain’t doing no good at all.”

I had the bright idea to be upbeat. So I answered, “Well, I’m doing pretty good.”

He narrowed his eyes and leaned over the counter toward me. “You may be doing good, but you sure ain’t pretty.”

That’s when I heard the gasps.

Then he sneered. That was the closest thing to a smile I had ever seen from him. I proceeded with his transaction like he hadn’t said a thing. He stood there and after a minute he said, “Didn’t you hear what I said?” Was he disappointed that I didn’t get upset?

I shrugged and said, “You’re entitled to your opinion. My boyfriend thinks I am beautiful and that’s all I care about.” With a big sweet smile, I handed him his change and told him to have a nice day

“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; For so you will heap coals of fire on his head, And the Lord will reward you” Proverbs 25:21-22 (NKJV)

The people around me were amazed at how I handled him. But I knew his comment had nothing to do with how pretty I was or I wasn’t. He wanted to get back at me for being nice and pleasant to him and he tried to use my own words to do it. Obviously, he didn’t know me very well. I had no intentions of giving him the satisfaction of upsetting me. I repaid his unkindness with calmness and a smile and it blew not only his mind, but those around me as well.

Remember, always take the high road by remaining calm and repaying everything with kindness.

Some people may find it embarrassing, but I think it’s funny. I don’t know how many times my mother has pulled up to an unsuspecting stranger and asked, “Can we get there from here?”

Before I go any further, let me say that my mother loves to laugh and have fun. It’s part of her charm. And that is her humorous (in her mind) way of asking for directions. But do you know what is almost as funny? The way people respond to her.

Most people understand that she is joking. They laugh and answer, “Yeah, you can get there from here.” And they will proceed to tell us. Usually it’s something like, “You go on up a mile and turn left and then turn…” You get the idea.

And then there are those who get confused. You can tell because they don’t immediately answer. Instead they crinkle their eyebrows and, if they are really confused, they’ll scratch their heads. At that point I tell them, “She’s just trying to be funny when she asks for directions.” Then my mom gives a big smile like she’s proud of herself. They usually answer, “Oh….Okay. Well, you’ll have to go…” Again, you get the idea.

But for some reason, there are those few who become exasperated. I’m not exaggerating. Over the years, I have seen some people become rather upset when my mom asks, “Can we get there from here?”

“NO! You can’t get there from here.” They usually cross their arms or cram their hands on their hips. “You have to go somewhere else first to get there.” Like that made just as much sense. We’re still getting to where we need to go from where we are.

Bear with me here. You can get just about anywhere from where you are. The problem is we like the straight, simple and easy ways of getting there–wherever your “there” is. In other words, we want to be able to stay in our comfort zones. And it blows our minds at times to see those who are willing to go places and do things that are challenging and hard.

What direction would you be headed today if Jesus hadn’t come out of Heaven; His comfort zone? What if He had decided to have angles take him off the cross? “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?” Matthew 26:53 (NKJV)

So dare to be bold. Dare to be fearless. Get out of that comfort zone and follow where ever Jesus leads you. I promise, you will never had to worry about going down the wrong path or asking, “Can I get there from here,” again.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct[a] your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)