Reflection for Sunday, November 1, 1998: All Saints, Solemnity.

Abstract

In my busy-ness these days, it is so easy to lose sight of the "bigger picture" of salvation the readings today remind me of. I find my mind and energy scattered by the many, daily "to-do's" I accumulate for myself at home and at work. This past weekend, illness occasioned our family to re-order and re-member some of "the essentials."|Yes, it would have been great to take mom to the Old Market on her last night of her first visit to us in Omaha. Our week was mostly taken up with shopping for warm clothes, rugs for our cold floors and curtains to help us feel more at home in our new dwelling here. But my youngest, Luke, age 6, came out of his school Friday escorted by the school nurse who explained, "he complained of a head-ache in class and has a fever of 102 degrees." I carried him home. He gratefully crawled right into bed. Our rhythm for the last day with Mom changed. We didn't go downtown or out to eat for our "last supper." Instead, we stayed home, played cards and ate pizza. With "no place to go," we lingered long at the table listening to Mom, ("Nani") reminisce about past generations and places... memories of long ago, now clearer to her than last week's. John took notes on a newspaper ad to capture some of the connections, so clear to mom now. After this time at the table, we moved to the living room with its new rug and watched a video she had brought of two public television specials on old Havana and on Cuban-Americans called "Cafe con Leche" ... a little more of my roots that I have longed to know more of and be able to pass on to my three children.|That night I gave thanks for interruptions. Thank you for the blessings of a visit from "Nani," for sabbath-days and liturgical cycles to help us pause and re-member the essentials in life. I laid down next to Luke and held his still feverish hand in mine. I gazed at his calm face with his rosy lips and dark lashes against his pale cheeks. "It's been too long since I have contemplated your face," I thought.|Lord, draw us often to contemplate your face, to savor the love you have lavished on us, to keep alive the vision of "people from every nation, race, tribe and language" led by the Lamb to the springs of living water and shouting Victory to our God!