On the last day of vacation, we stopped in South Bend to see the campus of Notre Dame. We have done this at several “famous” schools just to get feel for a place. We stumbled on to the Purdue campus while visiting g a Frank Lloyd Wright House in Indiana. After leaving Cincinnati we stopped by the campus of Kent State to see the memorial to the shooting of the students protesting the Vietnam War. We were headed to the airport in Chicago Notre Dame was right on the way.
We headed over to the book store and then a visitor center. I knew I wanted to see “touchdown Jesus” and the football field (have you see Rudy?). They gave us a nice map and suggested an hour long walking tour which we took. One of the stops was the beautiful gothic chapel in the middle of campus.
Inside we met a very friendly guide who told about his long association with the school. He was rightly proud of his university. We looked at the beautiful stained glass windows. Most catholic churches have a nativity window, so we went looking for the baby Jesus. Then it was time to go. The parking meter was ticking and we had places left to visit.
We headed to an exit, but our path was blocked. Two men stood transfixed looking up in a 10 foot by 4 foot lobby. Their fixed stare turned our eyes upward. Suspended from the ceiling was a hanging light. It took a second for our eyes to adjust and then we saw it. It was a helmet from WW1 that had been tuned upside down. The doorway was a memorial to those who had served in that terrible war. It was a remembrance of life lost and service rendered.
Many people walk in and out of that door and never look up. They never see the object which so personalizes the sacrifice. They walk past it without noticing.
I was standing at Kent State with tears in my eyes. We had listened to a person who shot that terrible day. We had watched a film. We had read the words of the grieving parents who lost their children that day. I was standing a bit overwhelmed on the sidewalk and watched as college students strolled around the campus who were not thinking about what I was thinking about. They were light, I was sad.
It’s so easy to miss the moment, to miss each other, to exist on a surface level. I think God is asking us to step closer to each other and look up and stand for a while in the awesome wonder of his sacrifice and love for us.