The Good Friday Bet

Every Easter season my children and I have this little ritual.  It's called the Good Friday Bet, and it is simply this.


I bet them $10 that on every Good Friday, at 3:00 pm, it will rain.


The first time I bet them, the youngest three were third, fourth and fifth graders in Catholic School.  It was something unique and different, a minor change in the routine, a new game to play.   Their teachers got a kick out of it, and all eyes were on the sky when the time arrived.


Usually, I would lose.


I probably owe them about $10,000 each by now.    It was something they always forgot about until I would bring it up again, as soon as Lent started.


After a while they'd roll their eyes and say Okay mom, I'm in knowing they never had to pay, because the few times I did win, they offhandedly would remark "I'll owe ya", as in the many time I "owed" them.
The entrance of high school brought  a new dimension to the picture, for they were rebelling against more than just me and my beliefs.  Growing pains and questions galore, we didn't bet on Good Friday for several years.
Until one of my children when off to war. 


"I thought of you and the Good Friday Bet" he wrote me shortly after that Easter.

"I guess I owe you some money.  Because it did rain here."


And thats what I wanted to impress on them all those years.  All the times when I would grin and say Yup, you won again, I owe ya.


I'd hope that they would one day get it.


It always rains on Good Friday at 3:00 pm somewhere.


Just as every Easter Sunday he rose again.


Keep the money, son.  I'll owe ya.


May you all have a happy and Blessed Easter.  Keep your eyes on the sky today.  It's blue and clear, the promise of a wonderful day ahead.