"Your dad's cool."

Last week Danny was taking extra lunch along to share with one of the guys who has been working for Jonathan this week. 

Together with other native men, Danny and this man were finishing painting trim and siding on the mission building.

Here's what the building looked like two or three weeks ago, with old siding pulled off.

 New siding on but not painted and trimmed completely yet.

Anyway, as Hannah and I were getting supper on, Danny told us about the homeless young native man that the mission has been giving some work to the last three days. I asked if the man liked the sandwich Danny took for him.

That day it was burger sandwiches made with extra burgers Jonathan had grilled the night before. (I don't particularly care for cold burgers, but if you put enough ketchup and mustard and relish on them, they're okay, and you know the meat is homegrown versus cheap sandwich meat from the store.) We didn't know if the worker would enjoy a cold burger like my men do or not.

"He said, 'Tasty burger!'" Danny told us. "We paid this guy $30 last night so he could buy something to eat, and he came to work this morning with donuts and Red Bull."

That's what he was expecting to live on and work on.

So Danny gave him a meat sandwich and also shared his big piece of apple pie.  

Danny added, "He told me 'Your dad's cool.' And when I was like, "Yeah," he said, "He really loves you." 

"Later he asked if I had a mom," Danny remembered. We wonder what his home life was like. Did he even know who his mom was?

 

Did he have one who may have mixed up oatmeal apple waffles for breakfast one time in his far distant past like Danny's mom did Saturday?

Might she have made French toast? Ever?

Did he have a dad? 

"I wonder what it was that made him realize how much your dad loves you," I pondered.
On the work site, I was sure there were no hugs, kisses, "I love yous" or pats on the back!

 But we thought how Jonathan always talks man-to-man to Danny and gives him instructions in a clear and kind voice, and that's probably what the young man noticed--a dad taking time with his son and treating him kindly. Jonathan always lets Danny know when he's going somewhere else and perhaps the man noticed thoughtful interaction, perhaps a simple "See you later, Danny," as Jonathan headed off to another place or inside to do paperwork. 

Such simple interactions mean so much to someone who is "out on their luck,"

 someone who's sleeping nights in a messy car, not sure where the next meal is coming from--

only to have a young man share a homemade lunch with him, put together by a mom who is there for her son nearly every morning before he heads off to work with his dad--a dad who loves his son so much that it shows everywhere they go,

a dad that's pretty "cool."