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I hope everything is okay. I made some of my famous chili for Charles and Shirley and have lots left over. If your hungry just give me a call and I'll drop it off.
Father Jerry
I looked at my mom. Homemade chili sounded great right now, I was starving! My mom smiled and said, "OK, I'll give him a call."
Shortly after Mom placed the phone call, Father Jerry was at our front door with a casserole dish of chili. "So how's the patient doing?" inquired Father Jerry as he entered the house.
"I'm okay. The doctor's want me to take it easy the next couple of days. Apparently squirrel chasing will not be on my agenda for the next two weeks." I said with a smile.
"Father Jerry I just wanted to thank you for everything you did for Eric today. I don't even want to think of what might have happened if you hadn't walked him home. All I can say is 'Thank God!' you just happened to be taking a walk this morning. It's funny but yesterday I prayed all day for God to watch over Eric and keep him safe as he drove home from school. I'm glad God widened my prayers to include crazy tree roots and squirrel chasing!"
Father Jerry smiled and raised his eyebrows and gave me an "I told you so" glance. I just nodded my head in agreement.
"Well I hope you both enjoy this chili. I'm kind of known for this back in Philadelphia," bragged Father Jerry.
"It smells great and I am starving!"
"Father Jerry would you like to join us?" my Mom inquired.
"Oh, maybe another time. I'm sure Eric needs some rest and I promised Charles that I would challenge him to a game of chess tonight. I was going to ask if you by chance found a red leather bound book? It's my own personal prayer book. I thought I had it with me on my morning walk and I can't find it anywhere."
"I could look for it if you like," my Mom offered.
"Don't go to any trouble. I'm great at forgetting where I left it, but eventually I always find it."
"Well I'll certainly look around for it. I apologize I have these boxes all over the place. I thought Eric and I would finish up the decorating last night, but he wasn't quite up to it."
"I noticed you had the tree up and I bet it will be beautiful once you get all the decorations on it. Do you know what my favorite part of decorating the tree is?" Father Jerry walked over to one of the open boxes of lights. "It's the lights on the tree. These tiny little bulbs of light are joined in a series just like the moments in our lives. Throughout the year we all have these small moments where the light of Christ shines through us. Day by day, month by month, each moment makes the light of Christ a little brighter in the world. Sometimes we don't even realize all these little moments have occurred until we stand back a little and take it all in. Just like when your putting lights on the tree. While you're winding the lights around the branches you can't appreciate how pretty it looks until you take a step back and see the whole tree. At Christmas I like to reflect on all those moments of generosity and love in my life, it fills me with hope and joy. I think it's all those little moments that make a difference in each person's life, don't you?"
"You know, I have never thought about Christmas lights like that before, but I certainly will from now on. You just put me in the Christmas spirit, Father Jerry. And after spending all day in the emergency room worrying about Eric, that is exactly what I needed to hear. I think there is a lot of truth in what you just said."
Father Jerry and Mom continued talking for a few minutes. I felt a little guilty that I didn't help my Mom last night. Maybe after dinner we could finish the tree.
"Father Jerry, this chili is amazing! Mom you have got to try this."
"I'll let you two enjoy your dinner together. Eric I'm glad you weren't more seriously hurt. Let me know if I can help out in any way. Don't worry I'll show myself out."
My mom and I devoured the chili in a matter of minutes. It had been a long day and neither one of us had eaten lunch. "Mom, I'm sorry I blew you off yesterday. If you want we could decorate the tree tonight."
"Eric, we can put that off for another day. I think you should just relax and get some rest. Maybe we could find something good on Netflix to watch."
"Sure, how about The Office?"
"That sounds good to me."
I don't even think I stayed up long enough to finish the first episode. Mom had covered me up with an afghan and she was sound asleep in the Lazy boy. I glanced at the clock. Was it seriously one am already? I had been sleeping for hours. Without thinking, I rubbed my forehead. "Ouch! Did that bump get bigger?" I remembered the nurse telling me to ice it tonight. My ice pack from earlier didn't feel cold anymore, so I decided to get a new one.
I was looking for another icepack in the freezer when something on top of the fridge caught my eye. Since when did Mom start storing books up here? I took the red leather book down and realized this wasn't my Mom's. This must be Father Jerry's prayer book. He must have set it there when he went to get me some ice. The spine of the book looked a bit worn, as if it had been well used. I could see all sorts of different pieces of paper stuffed between the pages. I wondered what sort of prayers would be in a priest's book? They would have to be something special, right? Priests probably have some inside scoop the rest of us don't have. I really wanted to look inside. I wondered....how big of a sin is it to look inside a priest's private prayer book?
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(to be continued...)
