THE HOLY WAVE [1] [M, 11-6-17]

Our pastor, Jimmy Moore, was sick with a cold recently. I was hoping the “fall back” scenario would occur, [see the CIW post for 11-5-17] but no, he’s tough. He preached anyway. However, he said he did not want to pass germs along, so he would not shake hands as folks came by him at the door afterward, but would just greet people with “a holy wave.”

One of the incredibly neat new traditions in college football is the wave from the fans at University of Iowa football games to the kids at the new Stead addition to Children’s Hospital, which is right next door and was built to overlook the field. [2]

Between the first and second quarters of each game, the fans--almost 90 thousand of them--and players stand and wave to the children who are watching from the windows up above. It was so neat at the Ohio State game to see even OSU coach Urban Meyer waving at the children.

I know what it’s like to be in that hospital before the Steads added several floors that overlook the stadium. I spent a lot of time there with grandson Joe when he was not yet even two years old. When Joe was a patient there, I could see the traffic as I walked to the hospital from the Ronald McDonald House, and we could hear the roars of the crowd during the game, but we didn’t get to see much. [3]

Now, in that beautiful, high up, new addition, the kids sit at the windows, some in wheelchairs, some in their beds, even, and wave back. It makes me cry every time, as I wave at the TV, knowing what it means to those kids to feel like they are a part of something normal, something fun, to know that all those people care about them.

That is a wave that is truly holy.

JRMcF

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

1] Not to be confused with the Austin, TX band by that name.

2] The Steads for whom the hospital is named, because they gave the money, are also president of the trustees at Garrett-Evangelical School of Theology, at Northwestern U.

3] Grandson Joe is now a high school senior and was just admitted to the University of Iowa. There, he’ll be in the student section at the games, waving at the kids in the hospital. He is planning to be an MD.