Driving back to Texas from the Great Homeschool Convention in Greenville, after a detour to visit friends in Winston-Salem, we stopped overnight in Meridian, Mississippi. As we were pulling off the highway, Hank said, “A State Police patrol car is following us.” You know the drill: one immediately tries to figure out what is wrong. Going too fast? Brake light out? Some other inadvertent mistake?
It was none of the above. The trooper was dropping off a woman at the same hotel. Behind his car, a big tow truck was dropping off another woman, a teen-aged girl, and a dog. And behind the cab of that truck sat what was left of their RV. It had been destroyed by a motor fire.
The women were covered with soot, and I do mean covered. Everything, including the dog, smelled of fire. They had stopped at the side of the road to take a picture of the sign “Welcome to Alabama” only to look back to see their engine on fire. Despite having two fire extinguishers, they could not put it out.
The good thing, of course, is that they were not driving when it happened. And they got the dog out.
It turns out they were making a long-planned visit from their home in Arizona to The Ark, a museum featuring a life-size replica of Noah’s Ark in Kentucky. Certainly, when they woke up that morning, they had not expected the day to end this way.
Their spirits were intact, though, and they were expressing gratitude. The hotel staff was as helpful as possible and welcomed the dog (who seemed completely unruffled). The next morning, we learned at breakfast that the women decided to rent a car and continue on. They’d planned too long and come too far to give up.
I’m not likely to forget these women. In the overall scheme of problems, this situation may not sit at the top of even their list, but certainly it provided a bad bump and some scary moments. Yet, they were safe. They openly rejoiced in that fact.
We commonly read admonitions to cherish the day, or even seize the day. We know this is good advice, but how often do we do it? Even more relevantly, how often do we cherish the fact that a day has passed in a more-or-less orderly way, so that needs were met and everyone is okay at the end?
There’s an old Russian custom we adopted long ago where people headed on a journey sit down together just before departing. It has both a spiritual and a practical purpose: to calm the journeyers’ spirits after frantic preparations and to open thought about things that might otherwise be forgotten.
But is there a similar tradition to celebrate a safe return from a voyage? Or, for that matter, a safe return home on any given day?
I found myself thinking of the liturgical cycle of the Daily Offices and how each day ends with Evening Prayer. Perhaps you know it under a different name in your religious tradition. Outside of the monastery, few people observe all eight Daily Offices, but Evening Prayer bookends with Morning Prayer in a natural way to order a person’s spiritual life.
Evening Prayer presents vibrant, beautiful texts, including a canticle called the Nunc Dimittis (Now let us depart) that comes from Luke 2: 29-32. Here Simeon, an old man described as an “upright man of careful observance,” realizes the fulfillment of a promise made to him that he would not see death until he beheld the Messiah. Included too is a confession of sins and the Lord’s Prayer.
But my favorite part of the text is known as the Phos hilaron, or “O Gladsome Light”:
O gladsome Light,
Pure brightness of the ever-living Father in heaven,
O Jesus Christ, holy and blessed!Now as we come to the setting of the sun,
And our eyes behold the vesper light,
We sing thy praises, O God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.Thou art worthy at all times to be praised by happy voices,
O Son of God, O Giver of life,
And to be glorified through all the worlds.
Although the ladies covered with soot weren’t using this language, they were expressing precisely these sentiments.
Let us remember during the daily onslaught of national and international news and as well as personal things which upend our human plans, to give gratitude as we come to the setting of the sun. We might do this by humming a simple hymn, or by sending up a quiet thought. Or we might read ancient texts or fall upon our knees.
But the remembrance of our blessings each evening, and an anticipation of God’s mercy each morning, can strengthen our resolve and pour a healing oil over our fears and distresses, be they caused by the huge explosion of an engine, or the thousands of nameless worries that try to occupy our hearts.
