Thanking God for giving us so much:

      Thank you, Lord, for ... Iced Tea!

     It was a hot August  Sunday morning as we bumped along the gravel road that separated Collin and Grayson counties in Texas. My father drove his usual 35 miles an hour in our 13-year-old '35 Ford, yet we stirred up so much dust, when he stopped to pick up Jarvis, the dust caught us and I had to spit out my dusty gum.

     Jarvis was a likeable kid, but very quiet. He didn't dress in Sunday clothes. He wore ragged jeans and a flower-sack shirt. I wore the same thing, but my jeans were almost new.

    Jarvis really needed some shoes.

     I had permission to ask Jarvis to go home with us after church. We would have the whole afternoon to play and we'd drop him off that evening on the way home from the Sunday night service.

     We had an evening service every other week on Sundays when the preacher came. We called it a "half-time church."

      I couldn't wait to ask Jarvis, so he could run back and get his mom's okay before we drove on to church.

      Jarvis instantly said, "No, I can't go today. Maybe next week."

       I said, "We won't be having an evening service next week."

       Jarvis said, "I'm sorry, but today is very special and I have to be home for lunch."

       Then, he whispered to me so that my parents in the front seat couldn't hear.

       "Today we are having ice tea!"

        Jarvis and his family were celebrating -- an occasion so special they were having iced tea!

         Poverty is an incredible condition, but it is relative.

        My family was poor, but we had iced tea almost every day all summer. Jarvis would have thought we were wealthy.

        As we drove on toward the country church, I remember feeling sorry for Jarvis, that he could not enjoy iced tea as often as I did.

         Yet he was happier than I had seen him. He was outgoing that day, not as shy as usual.

        Jarvis was celebrating. He was having iced tea for lunch.

        As we dropped him off at home after church, and as he ran toward the celebration waiting inside his home, I felt like rejoicing.

        And to this day, I consider iced tea to be "life-giving nectar," a drink for rejoicing.

         Thank you, Lord, for iced tea. And shoes. And jeans and flower-sack shirts.