Grandma: My Patron Saint of Teaching

Several years ago when my grandparents were about to go on a trip to the Mediterranean, my Grandma asked me if I wanted anything specific from the region. I knew the answer immediately. I wanted an icon. I spent five weeks in Greece and Italy on foreign study in college and always regretted not taking home one of these beautiful works of religious art. Is there a specific icon you want? she asked me. I thought for a moment. I wanted an icon where Jesus was teaching.

Sitting on the floor of my office (it's been a really, really long week even though it's only Wednesday), I see that icon my grandparents brought home from Greece hanging across the room. Jesus sits in a tree with a book of scripture open in his lap. His hands are open at his side, gesturing in conversation with the twelve disciples sitting around him. They listen rapt in attention, confused, awed, grasping at something that they don't quite understand.

I love that icon. As someone who has written Bible study curriculum and now serves as a youth minister, it reminds me of my responsibility to teach and how I strive to be like Jesus in my teaching. And I love it because this picture of sacred teaching comes from my Grandma, who was a public school teacher and a Sunday school teacher for decades and decades; a woman who taught me in so many ways. That icon reminds me of her and whenever I have looked at it since she has passed there has been a catch in my heart. I miss her an awful lot.

Today is All Saints' Day. For centuries November 1 has been a day in which the church has remembered those who have gone before us in faith. I love how Common Prayer puts it: "However hard it might seem to follow the way of Jesus in our own time and place, this is a day to remember that we may be crazy, but we are not alone." Oh, how crucial are those reminders that we are not alone?

So on this first All Saints' Day when she no longer walks this earth, I want to remember Sharon Williams who shared her love of God and learning with so many, including me. Whenever I teach, I am trying to pass along what she so generously shared with me. For her life, her love, and her ongoing legacy, to God I give thanks.