On Throwing Snowballs

There’s a streetlamp on the corner across from my house. It’s located approximately 35 yards from my front door. The post is about six inches in diameter. Every winter, whenever I walk outside, I attempt to hit the post with snowballs thrown from the top of my driveway. Generally, during an entire winter, I hit it maybe three times.

A few days ago, when going out to get the mail, I threw four snowballs at the post and hit it four times. I was so amazed that I immediately went inside and bragged about it to my wife.

It reminded me of the most amazing snowball throw I’ve ever made. I was in high school, and one evening I was in our church parking lot chatting with friends. I saw my youth pastor driving out the far side of the lot. He stopped and rolled down his window to talk with someone. After a minute or so, he started moving again, but he still had his window open. As he pulled onto the street, I made a snowball and waited. As he accelerated down the street, about 50 yards from where I stood, I let go.

Let me tell you, it was a thing of beauty — the swiftly-accelerating car and the arcing snowball lit up by the parking lot lights as it traced a path across the dark sky. As the two objects got closer to their destined meeting place, I started to giggle. It was unfolding as though in slow motion, and I could see that the impossible was about to happen.

That snowball passed dead center through the open window of the moving car and landed smack in my youth pastor’s lap. It was, indeed, one of the proudest moments of my life.

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