"Where is the safety patrol man?" I questioned, when we didn't see him sitting in his lawn chair on the corner. Then we saw him across the street sitting in his truck facing the school. (It was quite cold today, so I couldn't blame him, though on our way back we saw that he had gotten out of the truck to help the children.) I guess he saw us coming in his rear view mirror, because he stuck out his arm in his customary elbow-jointed wave as we made our after-school jaunt to pick up our grandkids.
It was an everyday event that he would somberly raise his arm like a wooden-figure-on-a-string toy to wave to us. I'm sure he recognized us by the novelty license plate on our front bumper that proclaims, "GOD IS GREATER THAN ANY PROBLEM I HAVE," that we bought a few years ago in Tennessee. Even viewing it backwards in a mirror, he knew what it said.
For the first few months of school, I walked up to collect the girls from the lines formed behind their teachers as they waited for us. Later my routine progressed to my walking halfway up, when I would see Kate tug her teacher's sweater and point to me, and the teacher would nod and release her. Kate would grab her sister's hand from the kindergarten line and race past me to the car.
Now, before we even park, the teachers recognize our car (the tag?) and the children come running before I can even open the car door. I forget about the tag, then when someone treats us with easy familiarity I remember why.
During the summer we often went to Sonic, and once after a couple weeks absence, one of the carhops came up and said, "Where have you guys been? We missed you!" They were all unusually friendly, even though I felt anonymous. Obviously, they noticed us, or at least our license plate! One girl said, "Two junior deluxe burgers, one substitute mustard for mayo, two senior teas, one sweet and one unsweet?", reciting our usual menu!
Today while we were having lunch at Wendy's, I saw an older couple come in and noticed the backs of their jackets were embroidered with something like "Pickers and Grinners, Fiddle and Guitar Music," obviously a group they belonged to. When Howard went up to order something extra, he struck up a conversation with them as they stood in line.
"Are they musicians?" I asked when he came back to the table. They were, evidently having a lot in common with my husband. They spoke to us when we were leaving, iniviting us to the Senior Center where they have a regular Tuesday night jam session. Before long, we realized we knew some of the same people and were soon conversing like long-lost friends!
Many things identify us, including slogans, statements, and affiliations we embrace. But our most important identification observable to others is our lifestyle. "Even a child is known by his doings," the Bible says in Proverbs 20:11. There is an old saying, "Reputation is what others think about you, but character is who you really are." Another way of saying it is, "People may date you for your personality, but they marry you for your character." Paul says in II Corinthians 3:2 that believers are epistles known and read by all men. If our identification is in Christ, people will know it by our actions and we won't need a sign!
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