Knocking on Heaven's door

This summer, while looking for something else for my Mom, I came across a treasure trove of old church fans. The little chapel that she cares for has long since had air conditioning installed, but someone saved dozens of these old fans in a paper bag. They are heavy cardboard, with three panels (the two sides pull out to reveal the whole scene) and depict bible scenes mostly with Jesus in the center panel. The reverse side is off white and covered in advertising from a local insurance agency. The phone number consists of only five digits ( and obviously, no area code) and the ad on the back says to "protect what you have". When I spread them out before me, the musty smell and the familiar artwork brought back a flood of memories. There were several fans with childish drawings on the back. I don't know if the drawings were something I did, or whether some other kid did them, who was as bored as I was and had a pencil handy. They're not unusual, just some scribbles and an attempt to draw birds and clouds, I think. I am captivated by the immediate sense of time gone passed and universal experience. Who is the kid who scribbled on the back of the church fans? Could be any one of us, or someone who has passed on and among the choir universal.

We are all knocking on heaven's door. We are all caught and functioning somewhere between the immediate, fleeting moments and the sense of belonging to God and the larger universe. "Protect what you have",the slogan says on the back. And yet, none of us can protect ourselves from the advance of time, the end of our lives, or the accidents and traumas that happen along the way. The only thing we can do, everyday, is answer the door, open it to God's knocking and do our best to "love one another." At the end of his days, knocking on heaven's door, Jesus gave a commandment to his disciples. He didn't do too much commanding or rewriting. He acted in loved. And so he told them to love one another. Simple and profound, radical and challenging, while we scurry around trying to protect what we have, we are encouraged to give it up for love. Let love be the measure of everything we do. Let love for others be our portion and cup.

So today, I want to remember that whatever challenges I face today, from boredom to loneliness, to lack of talent or lack of community, in all these things temporal, God is working for love's permanence. That I was bored when I was little and drew on things nearby. But God's love saw me through. I was in isolation in a hospital for a month and God's love and the support of my family got me through. These trials are fleeting and love is continuing. May we rejoice today, knowing that God is active in the immediate and temporal as well as the infinite and universal. May we say, "thank God, it's Friday and I've gotten this far by grace." God's grace and love is enough for what we each face today.