“In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a pocket handkerchief.  These handkerchiefs are called saints.” 

– Frederick Buechner

I’m grateful to my colleague, Rev. Joe Walker, who had the idea this year that we should really pause to honor the saints. It got me to thinking about who has been one of those “pocket handkerchiefs” that God dropped in to my life. My grandmother, Mina, who died when I was in 4th grade. She was beautiful and useful, like a white embroidered handkerchief. She could fish, camp, and feed the peacocks and turkeys she raised on her farm. But she could also let me wear her lipstick, take me to a fancy dinner or out to the soda fountain for a banana split. In her presence, I felt like God’s royal child.

Others are still living. My college chaplain Claudia taught me that ministry was about telling the truth. She never pretended that the Christian life or the ministry was an invitation to be holier than thou or plastic. But she always saw in me something I didn’t see myself. And so she pushed me to try out new ideas and new experiences without ever asking me to try to carbon copy myself after her. She remains a life long friend who I cannot imagine life without. She is always in my pocket, nudging and challenging me.

What about you? Are there some folks, long dead, recently passed, or still living, who God has used as an instrument of love and grace in your life?  Buechner says:

“The Holy Spirit has been called ‘the Lord, the giver of life,’ and drawing their power from that source, saints are essentially life givers. To be with them is to become more alive.”

 I love this notion because it broadens the reality of what it means to be a saint. During this season of pandemic, where we are daily bombarded with the rising death toll, it is good to remember that every one of us, can be a life giver. We can be with someone and empower him/her to become more alive. Though we live in a complicated and messy world, God still flirts with us. I look out at the members of our congregation: those active today, those who we have buried this year, and those long past in our history, and I see a handkerchiefs everywhere.    

Grace and Peace,

Carla