Morning coffee with my friend Hab

Joanna, our younger daughter, plans to arrive here this morning with her four children. They are hoping for one last Summer-like day at a Delaware Beach before frosty Fall weather roars in. Our youngest grandchild, Lila, is a curly-headed four-year-old who bounces about on the balls of her feet, and is blessed with an extra measure of the Wegner gene. Lila is the early riser of the clan.

On a visit last year, when she was still three years-old, Lila came into my study while Mom and siblings were asleep and with eyes flashing with excitement asked, "Well, how are you big guy?" No one knows where Lila learned the term, or why she applied it to me, but it is the cause for frequent laughter.

I have recently been reading Habakkuk, a prophet, counselor and poet in Judah. After reading, and re-reading the condensation of Habakkuk’s body of work, I would like to look him up and ask, "Hey, ‘big guy,’ do you have time for a cup of coffee?" It is sheer fantasy, but I would like to believe we would become very good friends. I have already nicknamed him "Hab." Habakkuk’s body of work as a temple prophet is reduced to only three chapters, or 56 verses. What we have bound into our Bibles is a sample of a lifetime of a ministry as resident temple prophet, writer, counselor and worship leader. Consider a temple prophet’s responsibility included listening to temple worshipers’ questions as they pondered why bad things were happening to good people. Prayer had to consume a major segment of Habakkuk’s time because he was expected to announce why injustices were rampant in Judah.

Hab and I would have a good time at Starbucks. Before our cups were emptied, I would ask, "Tell me, honestly now, what do you tell people when God doesn’t give you a clue?" Wouldn’t you like to be sitting at the next table listening in when I asked, "What was going on in Judah the day the Spirit said, ‘The just live by faith?’" Barbara Walters interviews Presidents and Morey Safer is assigned to converse with princes and Middle Eastern potentates, but I want an hour with Habakkuk.

I hope you don’t condemn me for sacrilege. (I didn’t take offense at Lila calling me "big guy!") In the next few essays I hope to record a few insights Hab shared with me in confidence during a few early morning meetings we had. He was more comfortable with meeting in my study than at Starbucks. (His sense of justice and concern for the oppressed makes Starbucks a poor fit for Hab.) We found early mornings, usually before dawn, the best time to meet without interruptions. I brewed a pot of Eight O’clock brand coffee. He came to our back door and knocked softly so that he wouldn’t awaken Pat with the sound of the doorbell.

It may be next week before I write again. I am sure that for grandchildren ages four through eight will love to meet Hab someday. But, they are not concerned with difficult issues of justice and ruthlessness yet.