Tuesday, February 24, 2026
(Part 3 of …)
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Basilica of Saint Mary … Pour Room … Heaven
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
And do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
Giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
For this trip to Uncle Merlie’s 100th birthday party in Wilmington, North Carolina I rented a Camry from Turo, a company that shares cars like Airbnb shares homes. I needed to pick up the car from an airport parking lot before 4 pm, but instead I didn’t arrive till twelve hours later.
Sometime before 4 am, my new helper Esa with Turo sent me a video of himself walking to the car, so I could find my own way. He gave me his personal phone number in case I needed it. That helped a lot, and the key/parking ticket were in the unlocked glovebox, and after taking a bunch of pictures of the car’s current condition, I left the airport. Perhaps these things happen all the time, but it was a first for me, and I appreciated being taken care of. The next morning Esa texted me. “Hey, how’d everything go?”
“It went great,” I texted back.
So a couple of hours before dawn, I opened the hotel room door and whispered, “Don’t wake up, Mike.”
“Too late,” he whispered. We talked for an hour and then at last I was asleep in a bed. Only four hours, but I felt pretty good. We ate breakfast, talked and talked, and decided on a church where we could attend Mass.
We got to church OK, to the Basilica of Saint Mary, but we had mixed up the times and locations, so the service was half over and the narthex full of latecomers like us. We joined them. Most of them spoke Spanish or Vietnamese. We stood with them and watched the service through windows in the doors. Once again, it seemed easy for me to feel the friendship and family-ness of the place and people. Maybe I felt like a little boy, still innocent, fears and suspicions suspended?
Nothing about the hard concrete floor where everyone knelt all together at just the right time, or the Catholic calendars available on the table, or the fairly constant flow of folks to the bathroom would make me think of heaven, but being around the people, lives unseen, did. We didn’t ask anything from each other, and we all needed everything from God.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
We were late to everything. It didn’t matter. After mass ended we drove, parked and at last walked into the Pour Taproom, which was hopping with our party. My sister Mary Kay found us at the door … and gave me the first of countless big hugs.
Seeing cousins for the first time in 50 years, I suppose some of the smiles and hugs and welcomes were a little strained, but mostly I think Mike and I both felt warm and welcomed. A photographer corralled us for pictures in front of a white backdrop. Stories, memories and details about kids and jobs and old friends sparked these simultaneously new-old relationships. Although my mind overflowed with stimuli and response, although my body needed another eight hours of sleep just to begin to recover, the point was that our uncle and aunt, Merlie and Vera, brother and sister since 1930, were there. And their presence changed everything.
They are both in pretty good health. Along with Roland (my dad) and Eugenia (Mike’s mom), both of whom are no longer with us, farm life in central Illinois during the depression and world wars embedded patience and a work ethic in them that has always been with them, and was there now. Of course they were glad to see us, and our cousins too, and the 80 or so other friends and family of the birthday boy (100 on Feb 12) and girl (96 on Feb 15, the day of the party).
Merlie rented two wheelchairs for them, since neither owns one. King and queen they were on their black thrones, and we honored them. But although we celebrated and gave them tribute, I am sure many of us felt more like they were taking care of us. Don’t children feel safe when their parents are around? Could we let our everyday self-protections and ambitions fall away because they were there? Of course. Maybe we didn’t exactly know why, but we could just be at peace, safe in the arms …
It was easy to talk with both of them. They asked lots of questions … and answered ours. They were the opposite of full of themselves.
The only thing that made us “special” was the hat we all wore that made us members of “Merlie’s 100 Club.” The Pour Room became a wide, long playground, and we ran right up to the edges and played all day, jumping and laughing and praising God. Because we were safe.
I tallied up as best I could the cumulative age of just the first two generations of our family and relatives, still around after all these years, who were able to get to the party. That number was well over a thousand. Does that make us a millenium family?
Of course it does. I’m so grateful to be part of it.
Jesus told his disciples,
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
This is how you are to pray:
Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
 (Isaiah 55, Psalm 34, Matthew 4, Matthew 6)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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