Bagpipes and Souls

     

Sarah at Three

 All Saints' Day always takes me back to Bartlesville, Oklahoma in 1987 when All Saints' Day was on a Sunday - just like this year. Sarah was three years old, and I often took her to church, First Presbyterian, with me.

        I quickly realized many Sundays before this particular All Saints' Day that training a toddler to behave during church service means sacrificing about a year's worth of church for myself – spending more time making the toddler behave than being able to pay attention to the different parts of the service or being able to have any message from the sermon sink in. And a year each is about what it took for both Sarah and Amanda – time I believe was well invested in order for them to know what was expected of them, from me, at church.

         So on All Saints' Day in 1987, Sarah and I were in First Presbyterian Church attending the service. Sarah was a bit wiggly, but we were always in a pew that was either all to ourselves or had lots of space between us and other parishioners so Goobs could somewhat wander and yet still be contained. As long as she was not noisy or distracting others, I would not have to nag her too much.

         Up front, on this special Sunday, there were bagpipe players! Wow – Sarah was very curious about them – what a lovely, different sight to see!

        From what I could gather from the service, and hopefully my theology is not too far off here, All Saints' Day is a day to remember the saints and also to commemorate Loved Ones who passed away in the past year. Bagpipes are often included in the ceremony. But like Sarah, it was my first experience with bagpipes in church.

         When the service was over, the players walked down the main aisle of the church blowing on the bagpipes making beautiful music. Sarah stood on the pew – her eyes were wide open as she stared at the scene. Then she asked me what was going on, and I whispered “we are saying goodbye to the people who have died, and the bagpipe music is leading the souls away to heaven.”

        Sarah gave the bagpipe players a wave and yelled above the music loud enough for the whole congregation to hear, with her sweet little three year old voice in complete earnestness, “Good bye Souls!”

306 20151102 Bagpipes and Souls