Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Memorial of Saints Cyril, Monk and Methodius, Bishop
Feast of Saint Valentine
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Hearts, a ring, and a smack in the head
Oh, no! In second grade my nemesis Leith was talking in class while Mrs. Armstrong was in the hall. When she came back she glared at us and said, “Who was talking?” Leith said, “It was David Sandel, Mrs. Armstrong.” Do you remember Eddie Haskell on the TV show Leave It to Beaver? Leith did him one better.
Our teacher stopped glaring at the class. She walked back to where I was sitting. I don’t remember protesting, even though Leith was lying. She smacked me on the back of my head. I gasped.
Worst memory of my childhood school years. Later, sitting at the head of our lunch table, Mrs. Armstrong’s blood suddenly burst out of her mouth and nose. Aneurysm. She died sometime later. Serves her right, I thought. Even now, I’m barely shocked at my lack of empathy. As I write this, I realize God has it in mind for me to forgive Mrs. Armstrong, and maybe even Leith – get this lifelong bitterness settled. Thank you, Jesus.
I have a happy memory too, in second grade and on into the future. We made cards for everybody in our class. Then we put little candy hearts in the envelopes, especially for our special someones.
My special someone was Debbie, the daughter of our school principal, Mr. Moss. Â She had long blond hair, and wore glasses. I loved her smile. A few years later I gave her a friendship ring I won selling magazines door to door in the subdivision behind our school. Debbie lived in that subdivision, now that I think of it. Right on the edge of our playground.
In third grade I accepted a double dog dare (or rather, we did), and I kissed Debbie behind the flag. Miss McGee didn’t say a word. Maybe she didn’t see us? We were little and she was big, but she did nothing to make us afraid of her, unlike Mrs. Armstrong. Anyway, we won the bet and I guess nothing was the same after that. My first kiss. Debbie’s too, I imagine. We shared some deep sentiments on our Valentine hearts that year. Be mine. Be my valentine.
We knew nothing of St. Valentine’s miracles, heroism and martyrdom eighteen hundred years earlier. We did know that, even as young as we were, love mattered.
More than we knew.
The Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household. Of every animal and bird, take a male and a female. Thus you will keep their issue alive over all the earth. Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth every moving creature that I have made.
And Noah did just as the Lord commanded him.
One of the more famous pregnancies today is Rihanna’s second, shared with the world during her Super Bowl performance. Love matters, and babies matter. We seem to know this as a people. Earth’s population was 1 billion in 1804, 2 billion in 1927, and 3 billion in 1960. Sixty years later it is around 8 billion.
The voice of the Lord is over the water, the Lord, over vast waters. The voice of the Lord is mighty; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The God of glory thunders, and in his temple all say, “Glory!”
We did strange things sometimes in grade school. Once my best friend Terry Lessen and I “exchanged girl friends.” Or was it Jane and Debbie that had that idea? We switched back after a few weeks. When I won the friendship ring for Debbie, Terry won one for Jane too.
We thought we should show off a little before giving them their rings. We decided on a long jump contest, in the sand pit behind Debbie’s house on the edge of our playground. Terry was an athlete; I was not. His jump was elegant, but I flailed a little too much in the air.
I couldn’t find Debbie’s ring afterward. Then I remembered I’d put it in my open shirt pocket. It must have fallen into the sand. I was heartbroken. I disappointed Debbie. But she consoled me. We had been together for years.
Later that spring Debbie’s brother practiced his own long jump for next day’s track meet. He landed, looked down and saw a ring in the sand. In my cloudy memory he looked at it, laughed at it for some reason, and then threw it in a burn barrel on the edge of his family’s backyard. I didn’t say a word.
But after everyone had left the playground, I pulled the burn barrel down and fished out the ring. I cleaned off the sand, polished it, and gave it to Debbie. One of the best days of my life.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.
 (Genesis 6, Psalm 29, John 14, Mark 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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