Monday Morning Meditation---February 8, 2010

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Isaiah 6:1

Our reading from Hebrew Scripture this past Sunday was the call of Isaiah in Isaiah 6. It was a day that the prophet Isaiah would never forget. A day of a great vision and call. We all have moments in our lives that we are not likely to ever forget. Beginning Friday afternoon, a snowstorm blew into Baltimore and the surrounding region that will go down in the history books as one of the biggest (or the biggest) snowstorm ever for Maryland. Most of us have been housebound since that storm---or at least we have inhabited a small radius of living since the storm. On Friday evening, before the blizzard hit, Bryan and I walked up to Hampden to the pasta bar Grano to pick up dinner. We mostly wanted to see the snow falling on a beautiful evening. We also were a bit curious about the road conditions. As the storm ended, all four of us walked into Druid Hill Park to see the winter wonderland. People were out and about—many trying to shovel their cars out of huge drifts of snow. The pace has been leisurely. The electricity has stayed on. We’ve had plenty of food and been warm. The New Orleans Saints even won the Super Bowl. But an event that I will never forget—no, not an event like that.

For all of us, there are certain events in life that are touchstones that we come back to again and again. What made the Super Bowl victory for the New Orleans Saints special was putting it in context with the horror of Hurricane Katrina. For our country, we will remember September 11, 2001—where we were, what we were doing. Some of us remember the day John Kennedy was assassinated. The day of the moon walk. The day Martin Luther King, Jr. or Bobby Kennedy was shot. Some remember Pearl Harbor. For the founders of Memorial Church, the day they heard the news that the Civil War had begun. We also remember the day we were married. The day a child was born. The day a parent died. The day an earthquake hit. The day we gave up alcohol for good.

The events in our lives that we remember are ones that change how we live going forward. A winter snowstorm does not do this. One day---we hope pretty soon---we will get in our cars and drive to the store. We will return to our regular routine. When an event like the call of Isaiah happens to us, we may return to our daily schedules but our life is never quite the same. We live with a disease. We live with the knowledge that life can change in a minute. We live with a purpose and/or faith that changes everything we have ever known. For those days we remember forever, God’s love becomes a force that is our foundation. A force that gives hope for the future.