Ketchum: Bad things can and do happen to all sorts of good people
The timing was lousy. Then again, the timing always is lousy when your doctor says you have breast cancer.
It happened last week, just as Lutherans marked the start of Advent, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas and the birth of Jesus. For Pastor Nicole Eastwood, the timing, indeed was about as lousy as it gets.
Pastor Nicole is a gifted preacher with a keen sense of humor and a calling to make worship deeply meaningful, not just a way to spend an hour on Sunday morning. She is in her first call at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Vero Beach, Florida. We used to spend parts of winters there, and we got to know and appreciate her there. So her news came as a shock.
Coming face to face with cancer, especially as the Advent season begins, serves as a reminder that bad things can and do happen to all sorts of good people.
For Lutherans, Advent is a time of waiting for the coming savior, a time to expect good things to happen. It’s also a time for much preparation, both physically and spiritually. For clergy, the pace quickens, and the to-do list grows exponentially.
Encountering cancer isn’t one of those things anyone expects. Society has conditioned us to expect only happiness and joy during the holiday season. Wishing someone Merry Christmas is supposed to make everything fine, even when it doesn’t.
As I was preparing this column, before I got Pastor Nicole’s news, I had been planning to lead with what happened on Black Friday. I am not, by nature, a Black Friday kind of guy. Black Friday might just be the best day of the year to stay home and listen to Bing Crosby Christmas songs or play “A Charlie Brown Christmas” on DVD.
Shopping anytime, especially on Black Friday, is not my thing. Yet there I was, in a jam-packed store in the mall, buying the one thing my bride had requested. If I tell you what it was, that will spoil the surprise, so I will leave that detail to your imagination.
I reached the counter and was preparing to pay for my purchase when another customer called out to the clerk at the register. She held a $10 coupon and asked, “Will this work on his purchase?”
“Yes,” the clerk answered.
She handed the clerk the coupon and smiled. I smiled, too, behind the mask I was wearing, and thanked her.
That was it. A moment of kindness, of generosity, an unexpected blessing. She and I likely will never cross paths again in this life. Yet I will always remember what she did for a stranger.
I believe God is alive, well and active in this world of God’s creation. I like to believe my encounter in that crowded store on Black Friday helped reaffirm that truth.
I also have no doubt that Pastor Nicole, who knows a thing or two about God and about caring for others, will find herself experiencing that same kind of God-given support and love she will need as she travels the road to recovery and to full health.
Much is made about the breakdown of civility in this country. Yet I believe much that is good and decent and honorable remains intact.
I believe it just as sure as there’s a God in heaven.
Jim Ketchum is a retired Times Herald copy editor. Contact him at jeketchum1@comcast.net.
This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Ketchum: Bad things can and do happen to all sorts of good people
