Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: HISTORY (03/10/22)
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TITLE: Saints Preserve Us | Previous Challenge Entry
By LINDA GERMAIN
03/17/22 -
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Garage sales seem to be more fun as owners are excited to lighten their loads and make a few dollars while seekers-of-stuff hunt for questionable bargains. They even chat and smile as they haul off those used toasters, plastic flowers, or baby clothes.
At the quiet estate sale that day, I wandered into what looked like a small office of the recently departed. Empty bookshelves lined one wall. Since this was the second day of the event, it was no surprise the day-one customers had depleted the inventory. That’s when I espied one small book lying abandoned. Its worn cover triggered my curiosity.
I heard the sales coordinator tell someone that the deceased owner had been an Episcopal minister. That made what I held in my hands even more touching. It was a well-used New Testament filled with notes and comments. Perhaps it was the one he carried with him to hospital visits or to read in waiting rooms or any number of possibilities.
Finding such a personal item was a pivotal moment that changed my perspective forever. This dear elderly man had moved on to eternity, but part of his story remained through bits of belongings now presented to strangers to generate money. Hopefully, there were family connections or past members of congregations who had loving, lasting memories.
No journal or diary of his past, no documentation of his academic journey, no written list of his accomplishments could offer as much testimony to his life as this item I held in my hands. All his lamps, rugs, linens, and dishes were dispersed, but this gem had been overlooked or ignored. It was left on a dark, dusty shelf as if thrown aside for lack of appreciation.
Why did tears threaten to come unbidden as I opened the cover of his little Bible?
For reasons I cannot fathom now, I gently laid it back on the shelf with reverence mixed with an unexplainable sadness--and then exited. Perhaps it went home with a new owner, happy for such a find. If I could go back for a do-over, I would be that person.
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*True
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