This Sunday we will celebrate All Saints Day.

As Barbara Brown Taylor says, one of the living saints from whom I have learned much, “More than any other day of the year, (All Saints Day) is family reunion day for the church . . . it is a day for pulling out all the old family photograph albums and remembering where we came from.” (Home By Another Way, p.211)

Frederick Buechner, whom I quoted in this space last week, is another of the saints who has had a large influence in my life. Buechner transitioned from this life to the next just this past August. He commented that, “In (God’s) holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. Those handkerchiefs are called saints.” (Wishful Thinking, p. 83)

I have included a picture of an embroidered handkerchief with this ministry moment. It reminds me of my grandma Koerner. Grandma and grandpa Koerner lived next door to the German Reformed Church in Eureka, South Dakota. When I stayed with them as a young boy we always went to church together on Sunday. We attended the German service.

My grandma always had a treat in her purse, sen-sen or candy. But what I remember most was when she would take her embroidered handkerchief out of her purse. She could create amazing little animals out of that handkerchief, mice or cats with tiny ears and tails. I’m not sure either of us got much out of the sermons.

My grandma was one of those handkerchiefs God dropped while flirting whole-heartedly with the world. Years later I came to recognize it was through my grandma’s life and even literally through that embroidered handkerchief, that God was flirting with me too. Letting me know I was loved.

This All Saints Day may you be reminded of all the ways God has and still continues to flirt with you. God loves you. God has dropped a few handkerchiefs in your life trying to get your attention. Who are they? Let us give thanks for them today, the ones still with us as well as those we have lost.

Pastor Lamont