As we move into November we can see the change of the seasons. The ground is littered with leaves and branches from the "bomb cyclone." The temperatures are dropping. Soon we will have morning ice and fog. It seems right that November is the month that we celebrate All Saint's Sunday. Especially this year.
But, on All Saints we remember that death and chaos does not have the last word. We hear on this day that a great cloud of witnesses surround us. They are there to encourage us and remind us of the love of God.
On October 25, I drove down to Redmond to Cedar Lawn Cemetery to inter James Norton. There was a calm between wind and rain storms. It seemed that God was using the leaves that had fallen to the ground to paint a mosaic around us. Before I joined Jimmy's family I stopped by a familiar grave stone. I stood and offered my thanks for these two witnesses to the Gospel; the two people who taught me the faith. This stop along the way was a good reminder that God is indeed with us in the good times and the bad.
As I made my way over to the small gathering around Jim's casket I thought about how he did not have it so easy in this world. In Jim we have a special kind of witness. A witness who can attest to the goodness of God, that even the least of these can proclaim the grandness of God's grace.
