October 10 | Moments Almanac | Doorway

Welcome to Moments Almanac for October 10th. Imagine a bitter winter night in 7th century England. Outside the wind is howling, snow covered the ground, the darkness seemed endless. But inside a great banquet hall, a fire is roaring. A king sits surrounded by his advisors. There is food on the table, laughter in the room, and warmth enough to make everyone forget the cold outside. Then suddenly a sparrow flies through the open doorway. For a few brief seconds, the little bird passes through the warmth and light of a great hall, and just as quickly it disappears through another doorway into the darkness. Where did it come from? Where did it go? Nobody knows. This was the picture offered by one of King Edwin's advisors in the year 627 as the king considered whether to embrace Christianity. According to the historian Beattie, the advisor compared the sparrow's brief journey to human life. We enter this world from somewhere unknown, we spend a little time in its warmth and light, and then we disappear into the mystery beyond. If this new Christian teaching could tell them something certain about what lay beyond, the advisor reasoned, then surely it was worth following. And standing in the middle of this remarkable moment in history was a missionary named Paulinus. He had come from Rome to help bring the Christian faith to England. Eventually he traveled north with a Christian princess named Ethelberga, who married Edwin, a pagan king. Paulinus preached, he prayed, he patiently explained the gospel, and on Easter Sunday, April twelfth, six twenty seven, King Edwin was baptized. The light of Christianity began spreading across Northumbria. But history rarely follows a straight line. Six years later Edwin was killed in battle. His kingdom fell into turmoil. Paulinus fled south, escorting the widowed queen and her children to safety. The great mission he had helped establish seemed to be falling apart. Paulinus never returned to York. Instead he spent his remaining years serving as a bishop in Rochester, where he died on october tenth, sixteen forty four. And that brings us back to the sparrow. I wonder how often Paulinus remembered that little bird. He had watched a kingdom embrace the Christian faith only to see its king fall and its future become uncertain. Perhaps he understood better than most how quickly the warmth of the season can give way to the darkness of another. But the message he carried was never that life would be free from winter. It was that death would not have the final word. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me even if he dies will live. John 11 25. And maybe that's what makes this ancient story of the sparrow so powerful. We are all passing through the great hall. Our time here is brief, the fire is warm, the moments are precious, and each day, each one of us will pass through that final doorway. But because Jesus Christ came, we do not have to face that doorway without hope. The one who conquered the grave has already gone before us. And for those who belong to him, beyond the doorway is not endless darkness, it's everlasting life. And that's Moments Almanac for October 10th. I hope you'll join me tomorrow. Until then, take heart. Notice the scattered moments, and cheer the grace.