The Long Peek Before the Boo

It was 6 o'clock in the morning, and already Dan Goering was not having a nice day. It was the kind of Friday when it's hard just to roll out of bed. A brief and mildly desperate search of the kitchen found no caffeine on hand, so Dan decided that a walk to the neighborhood Seven-11 for a cup of coffee was called for.

A member of Sojourners Community for 15 years, Dan had been director of the food distribution program at Sojourners Neighborhood Center for a few of the most recent. But he had just made a change. For a time, he was putting in time at a job in order to finance his dream of getting a master's degree in social work.

As he walked toward the Seven-11, Dan thought of all the people he missed from the Saturday morning food line. He considered staying home that day from his new job; the work seemed so far removed from his passions and commitments. On the other hand, it had become difficult to see the food line grow over the years, to hear the stories every week of jobs taken away and families evicted, to feel the growing desperation.

As Dan got close to the Seven-11, he saw a familiar face coming toward him. It belonged to Jerry Jones, one of the regulars from the food line. They had a standing joke between them--Dan always kidded Jerry about being the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, since the football team's owner shared his name.

Jerry was pushing his trademark shopping cart full of aluminum cans and sipping an early-morning beer. He did not look like the owner of the Dallas Cowboys.

"Hey, Jerry, how're you doin'?" Dan asked when they came face to face.

"I'm all right. How're you doin'?"

"Man, I am not doing well at all," began Dan. "I didn't even want to get out of bed this morning--"

"Wait a minute," Jerry interrupted, before Dan could begin his litany of woes. "You woke up this morning, right?"

"Yeah."

"You're out walkin' around, right?"

"Yeah."

"And I bet you got a job to go to."

"Yeah," said Dan a little sheepishly.

"You're all right then," declared Jerry. He took his cart of aluminum cans and moved on. And Dan realized for the first time that day that he really was doing just fine.

A FEW WEEKS AFTER Dan shared with the community the story of his early-morning encounter with Jerry, Dr. Calvin Morris of Howard Divinity School came to preach at the Sojourners Community worship service. As part of a special fall preaching series on the beatitudes, he took up the challenge and promise of "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

Calvin has a heart for children, and he spends time with the kids who come every day after school to Sojourners Neighborhood Center. He takes special delight in babies, and as part of his sermon he talked about the game of "peek-a-boo."

The child playing the game, said Calvin, lives with the momentary fear of abandonment when a familiar face is covered. But then he or she shrieks with delight and joy when what was hidden is seen again, when assurance of the presence of a parent or friend is restored.

Seeing God is a bit like that, said Calvin. So often the sufferings that surround us, the frustrations that plague us, seem to signal that God is hidden. As Calvin put it, we are "livin' through the long peek before the boo."

There is a way to see God in this time, however, according to Calvin. What appears hidden, isn't really. We can see God in one another's faces. In children's faces. In the face of a friend like Jerry.

We only need the eyes of the heart in order to see.

Joyce Hollyday was associate editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.