DAY 178: Those We’ve Lost

DAY 178

Faith in the Midst of a Pandemic         

A series of daily reflections for people of faith

by Rev. Robert Bayley, Interim Pastor

Patuxent Presbyterian Church, California, Maryland

pastorrobert@paxpres.org

Week Twenty-six    Tuesday 8 September 2020

Those We’ve Lost

Margaret Shaw, 79 – Jimmy Shaw, 80           

“Margaret and Jimmy Shaw grew up with humble means in a town with no streetlights or indoor plumbing. Teenagers when they married, they remained married for 63 years. ‘It’s a beautiful love story,’ their granddaughter said. But it was one with an ending unique to 2020. They died of the coronavirus within 24 hours of each other. Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church was central to their lives for more than 50 years where it was said of them ‘they lived the life.’”  A recent installment in an ongoing newspaper series “Those We’ve Lost”

Several things struck me when I read about these two lives taken by COVID-19 at the same time. First, they stayed in the same marriage 63 years. “From their start their lives did not come easy. At mealtimes Mr. Shaw would abstain until his wife and children had finished eating. In an interview on their 50^th anniversary, Mr. Shaw said ‘You learn from your mistakes.’”

Second, they stayed in the same church for more than 50 years. “Mr. Shaw became a deacon and both taught Sunday school and worked on church projects.” In a day and age of a consumer approach to church for so many, there is something particularly solid about people who stay in the same church through thick and thin. They are the stuff strong churches are made of.   

Third, their attitude toward life in general. Especially in their earlier days they lived in a ‘deeply segregated’ Miami and took whatever jobs they could find, working hard to provide for their family. “Through it all their home was an oasis, especially when Mrs. Shaw was cooking and singing. On Sunday mornings the house would fill with the smell of biscuits baking and the sounds of gospel music on the radio, with Mrs. Shaw’s voice soaring beautifully above the broadcast.”

Reflective question: How will the summary of your life read when you die?

Reflective Scripture: Revelation 14:13 – “…blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, from now on. ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.’”

Reflective hymn: “His Eye is On the Sparrow” – Civilla Martin (1866-1948)

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,

Why should my heart be lonely, longing for heaven and home.

When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He;

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

I sing because I’m happy, I sing because I’m free.

For His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me.