Day 99: The Many Faces of Mike

When you know someone for over 30 years, you are bound to see the multi-faceted dimensions of them.  You are bound to have seen them at their very best and their very worst; their strongest and their weakest; their happiest and their saddest.  And that is true of my husband, Mike.

Mike is one of the most tender-hearted men I have ever met.  He will cry at the drop of a hat, seriously.  Like I have seen him weep at McDonald's commercials.  And when he cries, he is so cute because he tries to smile really big, so as to distract you from the fact that he is crying, but no one is fooled, Mike Jones, no one is fooled.

And then there's Crazy Mike.  Mike was actually given the name "Crazy Mike" by a friend of Jacob's.  A random mean dog kept coming in our yard, and one day, when a lot of Jacob's friends were over, Mike saw the dog and said, "If that dog comes in my yard again, I'll snap his neck."  Keep in mind, this was a really REALLY big dog.  Jacob's friends all laughed, and from that day forward they called him Crazy Mike.

And then there is Sunday School Teacher Mike, AKA "Mr. Jones" to his class.  He had a class one year that was especially dear to him because there were a couple of boys in the class whose dads were traveling a lot, and he felt responsible to reach out to them.  He apparently was special to them too, because years later their moms told us how much those days had meant to them all.

Then there is "COP Mike."  This is the Mike that will totally bust teenagers in the parking lot of gas stations who are trying to convince someone to buy them alcohol or tobacco or something else they shouldn't have.  This Mike scares me because I'm worried he's going to get shot some day.  But he always says to me, "If all adults cared about what people's kids were into, then our kids would be a lot safer.  That's how it was in my day."

There are so many Mikes to write about that I cannot possibly write about them all.  So I will say this, my husband would give you the shirt off his back without even thinking about it. ( He might launch into a lecture about why should not be walking around without a shirt on, but if you needed a shirt, he'd give you his. ) He is smart, and generous, and deeply in love with those who are unloved.  He is strong and wise and perhaps a bit impatient.  He is faithful and always believes that God will come through in the end.  He is self-sacrificing and loves his family more than I think he has words to say.

All that to say, Happy Birthday Mike Jones, man of my dreams.