Yesterday I watched President Reagan's motorcade wind its way around the California highways, making its way to the Presidential library. When I saw the cars in the opposite lanes slow and stop in respect, I guess that's when it hit home. This was not just a presidential motorcade, it was a funeral procession. Someone has been lost to us. Not just on a national level, although it's that, too. But this was personal loss--to a family left behind by their husband and father. And passersby slowed to honor the grief of the family as well as the loss of a former president.
Later my guy and I watched the private ceremony for President Reagan. And then that unforgettable moment when the former First Lady laid her head gently, as if for comfort, on the coffin of the President. I got a lump in my throat as I remembered my own mother facing this loss. My next thought was, I shouldn't be watching this. This was a private moment. But then I realized that the family had allowed the cameras to be there. And I learned something of the character of Nancy Reagan. For years we've watched her fiercely protect the privacy of her ailing husband, and we've kept our distance. But in this moment she set aside her own privacy to share a tender goodbye. Chief among a nation of mourners.
Maybe all these years Mrs. Reagan has never intended to jealously guard her own privacy. Maybe she was simply protecting the privacy of another, more vulnerable than herself.
That moment by the coffin was not a "money shot" or a photo op. It was a moment of great value, because the woman who valued it most chose to share it with us.
-Godseeker
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2 comments:
What a wonderful First Lady Nancy has been. She has chosen to share several of these moments with us over the years. In fact, the Reagan library houses many love letters that Ron wrote to Nancy.
I commend her for her strength in charachter and willingness to let us in to her world if even for a moment.
But isn't that a choice we all have? To keep up the facade of being "together" or to let people see a glimpse of the true side of us.
TO reference back Godseekers original post, of not being a "platic" Christian. We all hurt and cry and stumble and fall. So what makes Christians different??
I wouldn't say it makes ME different, but what makes THE difference is Jesus. It's not that I am perfect, because I am not. It's not that I don't fall, because I do. It is that Jesus is there to pick me up. That he is their to be perfect in every way.
So, when Nancy let's us see her compassion and pain, we can grieve with her and know it will be ok. Because Jesus makes it ok for all of us.
I saw a news report where after Reagan was shot he felt God wanted him to be president. That there was work to be done. I think he was right. I also think God gave him Nancy as a helper. And that is what she did until the very end.
Seeing the flags around town at half mast, I feel a certain poignancy. As President Reagan passed from this life, I've reflected on the many things that he has left behind, Nancy, us, his legacy. I've been reading Plutarch's "Makers of Rome" (ok, call me a loser) and I see these people who led Rome to be what it was. The time and deliberate effort to be who they were so that they could make Rome be what it ought to be; Reagan from his youth was deliberate in being someone. I saw a quick clip on tv (you really can't avoid everything) about the impression FDR's visit to Reagan's hometown when R. was young, made upon him. The ancient Roman's lives are as vivid in words as Reagan's life is to me. I realize while to us we are living in the present day, to God this event is as present as ancient Rome. He has seasoned the world with strong people to inspire us.
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