Nate loved the horn on his car. Each evening as he arrived home, he’d toot the horn twice as he pulled up to the garage as if to say, “I’m home!”

A few years after that became standard, he added another set of toots when turning into the drive. And several years after that, he began honking as he rounded the corner onto our street. When I talked to him about it, he had no intention of stopping and said his goal was to get a horn that sounded out the notes of Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender.” Although he never accomplished that, the boys did buy him an air horn louder than a freight train and installed it under the hood, giving him the surprise of his life. He loved it.

All of Nate’s horn-blowing irritated me, partly because of the noise and partly because I thought the neighbors must be cringing inside their houses at the disruption on our quiet cul de sac. It was six unnecessary loud, long blasts each time he came home. But when I talked to Nate about it, he just laughed and said, “Everybody loves a nice horn.”

Tonight the girls and I will be sleeping in a luxurious home on Sanibel Island filled with wonderful relatives who welcomed us warmly. We talked of former adventures on this island when our two families used to rent houses next door to each other annually.

One fun memory of Nate brought enthusiastic laughter as we remembered how his horn-honking came all the way to Sanibel. The four younger girls, still in single digit ages, were out roller blading when they spotted an alligator crossing the road. These unpredictable beasts look lazy and low-key but can swivel around lightning-fast and snap their jaws with deadly force.

The girls raced back to our houses to holler for help. Just then Nate drove in with the day’s newspapers, right up to the alligator, and lay on his horn like never before with long, blaring honks that practically shook the stilts from under the houses. When the alligator paused on the road to look at the car, Nate considered that his go-ahead for further honking. In the end, he had to give up and back up, since the alligator refused to be intimidated. Eventually the reptile wandered into a nearby swamp and our girls were able to resume their skate.

Back in Illinois, I talked to Nate about his horn-honking repeatedly, asking him to at least cut down the frequency, but he never complied. Then one day as I was planting flowers with my back to the street, he blasted the horn and I jumped a mile. He didn’t mean to startle me and quickly got out of his car to apologize, promising never to honk the horn again. I didn’t believe a word of it, but he followed through. That very day the honking completely stopped.

The Bible is full of blaring horns, and God instructed people to make noise with them when leading troops into battle, when fighting, when announcing victory and when celebrating afterwards. Trumpets and rams horns were used in worship and in making joyful music combined with other instruments. And when God decides it’s finally time for time to end, he’ll assign angels to blow horns just before each judgments occurs.

Because Nate is now with the Lord, its possible God has assigned him horn-honking/blowing as part of his heavenly service. If the Lord asked for volunteers, I know Nate’s hand would have been waving wildly. I hope he’s having an absolute blast!

”Make music to the Lord…with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn. Shout for joy before the Lord, the King.” (Psalm 98:5-6)