Ways to Serve

As we moved the rolltop desk during the Great Flooring Project, treasures have come out! No, not money, but old letters that had lived back there for decades. A letter from 1952 from Aunt Rosalyn, a letter from a serviceman from 1945 to my grandfather. More about the letters themselves in this blog post.

But here, on my theology blog, I want to think about my grandfather as pastor.  One of the letters with a postmark of January 1945 It's from someone who is serving in the Solomon Islands--I think. The writing is faint. There's a thank you from the writer to my grandfather and the church for sending the box. I can't tell what was in the box, but from the postmark, I'm guessing it's some sort of care package to a military person.

Since I can't remember the history of World War II in the Pacific, I Googled it, of course--and immediately felt ashamed of my ignorance. How could I not remember that Guadalcanal was part of the Solomon Islands?

The letter feels historic, and yet I know that there must be thousands, millions, just like it. Or that there were, but now decades later, most of them are gone--another reason why this letter feels precious, even though I didn't know the letter writer. My grandfather didn't mean to preserve it--I'm guessing it was part of a pile of paperwork that somehow got caught between the back of the desk and the cubbyhole insert. Perhaps it got rolled back, although I don't remember my grandparents ever closing the rolltop desk--but who knows how they used the desk in 1945.

It was interesting to read this letter during the week-end where the nation has said goodbye to Senator John McCain.  Much was made of his service to the country, both as a Navy officer and a Senator.  It's the kind of eulogizing that can make many of us feel inadequate.

This letter reminds me that we all can be of service in so many ways.  My grandfather served 5 small parishes in Greeneville, Tennessee.  Those people wrote to their sons who went away to war.  Those sons wrote back to tell how important those letters were.  We don't need much imagination to know how different the 20th century would have been had World War II ended differently.

The final words of John McCain are an appropriate way to end.  I suspect that anyone reading this blog would agree with him when he says, "To be connected to America’s causes — liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving good causes bigger than ourselves.”