Saturday, March 12, 2022 (today’s lectionary)
Snow falling on Hoosiers
The Lord is making an agreement with you. You are to be a people peculiarly his own. Keep his commandments, and he will raise you its in praise and renown and glory above all other nations.
At Evansville’s Fairfield Inn East, Pat is the cook and Karla does reception. I couldn’t find my room key because I’d covered it with an iPad. “What room am I in, ma’am? My name is Sandel.” She looked at me. She smiled. “You’re the one who wanted biscuits and gravy!”
Yeah! I said. That was two years ago.
You remember!
I was flattered. Karla is a friendly, stocky African-American. She blushed a little, she smiled. I think she remembers a lot of people.
“And we still don’t have ‘em. They gave us an oatmeal breakfast bar instead. I don’t know what’s wrong with those folks in charge up there in New York.”
Well, you have English muffins. All we need is a little gravy. You could buy a gallon can at Sam’s or Costco.
“Yeah! But I know everybody would want the gravy. The bosses would be mad. We better not. By the way, you’re in room 134.”
You will be a people sacred to the Lord, your God.
Pat has worked for Marriott 27 years. Her granddaughter will graduate from Liberty University in December and join a Baptist mission in Haiti for at least a year. And at the same time her boyfriend will be working at Chase Manhattan on Wall Street, where he is finishing his finance degree internship.
She apologized for having no gluten free muffins or bread. “I order them every day. But I never get them anymore.”
No biscuits and gravy, nothing that is gluten free … but two Evansville sweethearts taking care of us.
The winter sun poured through the windows. “Just leave those plates on the table, hon. I’ll get them put away for you.”
We’ll be back. It’s the little things. Sunshine on our shoulders, we’ve found a little bit of heaven.
Behold, now is a very acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Later Margaret made a chocolate pie in Kay and Dorothy’s kitchen. Their house is small, the kitchen is small. The three girls sat around a table, while Margaret mixed the flour and the cornstarch, then added the eggs and the sugar and the chocolate. Margaret asked them their opinion of free will and eternal security. They tossed around ideas, enjoying their agreement.
Later Kay’s daughter Heather joined them. Her husband is a gnostic. If we do what we’re supposed to do, when we die we become energy. If we fail, we just dissipate and disappear. Heather grew up a Christian, but now she’s caught between two belief systems.
She’s happy to acknowledge that she has no answers. I suggested that she keep refining her questions, and eventually, perhaps, an answer will appear. Late at night. In a dream. Suddenly while she’s driving her kids to a play practice. Who knows?
Jesus spoke and said, I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.
Heather talked about a friend who had become an enemy. Then he had an accident. Heather’s heart opened up to that person again. She prayed for him, although she wondered how she should pray. He nearly died; perhaps he had a near death experience.
God’s love for both Heather and the other will always be enough. “Go for it, Lord. Take care of your son. Forgive him and forgive me for my desire for vengeance.”
Our Father makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. And if you love only those who love you, so what? Everyone does that.
Illinois got beat by Indiana at the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis yesterday afternoon. As we drove to Urbana, my heart was heavy. I wanted to blame someone. A few minutes into our four hour drive it started to snow.
It snowed on everybody.
(Deuteronomy 26, Psalm 119, 2 Corinthians 6, Matthew 5)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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