As the dawn of this New Year broke, my heart broke a little. One of my favorite residents at Covenant Shores Retirement Community passed away.
I met Dr. Ernest Dawn the day I started work nearly three years ago. His physical appearance was a bit deceiving. I had no idea that this short, hunchbacked man was a giant in his field.
From 1948-1988, Ernie was a distinguished professor in the history department at the University of Illinois. His specialized field of study was the Ancient Near East. Since leaving his humble origins in Chattanooga, Tennessee, he’d grown in his knowledge of the world. He’d also grown accustomed to greeting Albert Einstein on the city streets while earning his Ph. D. at Princeton University as graduate student. Forty years ago, Ernie published a watershed treatise on the topic of “Ottomanism to Arabism.”
When I entered his apartment and introduced myself as the new chaplain, the 95-year-old retired college professor candidly confessed, “Happy to know you, Chaplain. But you need to know I’m an agnostic!”
I thanked him for his candor and assured him his theological ambivalence would not detract from my interest in him as a person. As I looked around his apartment, my eyes focused on a large framed print hanging above his desk.The colorful scene pictured a Middle Eastern marketplace. In the center of the painting was a small boy grasping the hand of mother clothed in Muslim garb walking into the heart of the bustling market.
“I see you in the picture, Ernie,” I said with a smile. “You are the little child holding the hand of faith. Unsure of where it will take you, you are willing to let faith lead.”
Ernie commended my imagination without denying my assertion. Although we disagreed on how one verifies what is knowable, we both admitted to the mystery of the unknown. My friend died with a greater willingness to trust what he could not prove. His “hand” was reaching in an upward direction.
As we begin this New Year, none of us can be sure of what the coming twelve months will bring. The only thing we can fully expect is the unexpected. But if we are grasping the hand of faith, the coming journey need not be feared. The adventure before us will likely be quite meaningful.
