Ann Pierce Arnett

Isaiah 5:42   

Thus says God, the Lord,

    who created the heavens and stretched them out,

    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,

who gives breath to the people upon it

    and spirit to those who walk in it….

Reflection: 

It seemed like an ordinary day. I usually walk in the evening just around my block.  It’s a spiritual discipline that I enjoy. I know most of our neighbors and we greet each other if they are out at that time. I know their children and their pets; I appreciate the work they invest in their gardens and the care of their homes. We are an extended family in a way. But, it was unusual for me to walk this morning.  

The weather has been rainy in the evenings and I had missed my late walks so I took the opportunity to go early. I hope you have noticed that the light in the morning is so different from the evening. The shadows cover areas that are usually highlighted in the evening sunsets and the morning sun reveals low lying ground cover I have never noticed. The tree frogs and birds are singing a different song and the locusts are quiet. I was enjoying the cool of  this new morning so I decided to walk one more block. It was unusual.

As I crossed the street where I usually turn to go home, I noticed a red EMS van.  I worried for the family where it was parked just as I heard a voice behind me, “Excuse me.” I turned and it was an EMS guy.  “Do you know this family?” he said.  Actually, I did but I had not had any contact with them for many years as they lived on the next block but… “Yes,” I replied very tentatively. “I noticed you were barefoot,” he said, “so I thought you lived nearby. We transported the man who lives here to the hospital a couple of days ago and I just found his driver’s license in the back of the van.  If I send it through channels it will take weeks to get back to him so I thought I’d bring it back to the house but no one answers the door. I thought you might get it to him.”  

We continued to chat as we stood on the sidewalk.  I told the EMS man that I knew the man’s wife had dementia and that their grown children had most likely come for her when her husband went to the hospital.  As for strangely walking around barefooted, I told him I was a native Houstonian and had grown up going barefoot in the summers.  He too had loved to go barefoot but hadn’t for a long time.  Then he handed me my neighbor’s Driver’s License and we parted and I walked on my way.  It was an unusual morning.  

My experience reminded me of the prayer in our United Methodist Hymnal in “An Order for Morning Praise and Prayer”:

     New every morning is your love, great God of light, 

and all day long you are working for good in the world. 

     Stir up in us desire to serve you, 

to live peacefully with our neighbors, 

and to devote each day to your Son, Our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.  Amen.