When the Homily is about Immunology

Looming

Interstate 5 moves along quite well at 5:45am. So do I, once the caffeine has begun its work. The air is crisp, clean, and a tad cool this morning…a lovely day looming in western Washington, with just a slight hint at the possibility of sprinkles from the partly cloudy sky.

Tormented by the silence (save road noise and the old motorcycle engine mistakenly placed in my small car), I turn on the radio to hear NPR offering the profoundly meaningful story of “the oldest male stripper in America.” I imagine they call such rubbish a “human interest story”? My mind wanders typically to the everyday things in my life: the assay results at the lab I must compile, the class planning I am working through for the teens of my parish, my bathroom repair/remodel that continues to haunt me, where the money is going to come from to get me through the month, etc etc.

As I round a bend in the freeway, just south of Shoreline, I find myself in the midst of a wonderful confrontation. A long straightaway in I-5 seems to suddenly collide with The Mountain in the distance. For the benefit of those unfamiliar with Seattle, I speak of Mt. Rainier of course, and today it could take your breath away. The just now rising sun paints one side in a shower of yellow and orange and as it sometimes does, it seems impossibly big today.

Funny, how I sometimes forget it is even there and then suddenly on a day like today its magnificent appearance pauses the day’s normality and forces me to say: wow! Though sometimes shrouded in the grayness of Seattle, and apparently very often ignored or forgotten by us locals, it is none-the-less always present…looming and waiting to awe.

Not unlike God.