Jan 242021
 

PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “FINGERTIP MEMORIES OF THE GRAVEN IMAGE OF HIS DEAR FACE, AND OF HIS MARVELOUS VOICE”

     Helen Keller was 14 years old when she first met the world-famous Mark Twain in 1894.  They became fast friends.  He helped arrange for her to go to college at Radcliffe where she graduated in 1904, the first deaf, and blind person in the world to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.  She learned to read English, French, German, and Latin in braille and went on to become practically as world famous as her dear friend, writing prolifically and lecturing across the country and around the world.  Keller lived into the 1960s and shared some of her fond memories of Twain in an autobiographical book she published in 1929.  In particular, she records recollections from her last visit to her friend in his “Stormfield” home in Redding, Connecticut, which she thought of as a “land of enchantment.”  She preserves for us a vivid image not only of Mark Twain–Mr. Clemens, as she called him–but of her own vivacious mind.  About Twain she writes, “There are writers who belong to the history of their nation’s literature.  Mark Twain is one of them.  When we think of great Americans, we think of him.  He incorporated the age he lived in. To me he symbolizes the pioneer qualities-the large, free, unconventional, humorous point of view of men who sail new seas and blaze new trails through the wilderness.”  As they gathered around the hearth one night after dinner at Stormfield, she records, “Mr. Clemens stood with his back to the fire talking to us.  there he stood-our Mark Twain, our American, our humorist, the embodiment of our country.  He seemed to have absorbed all America into himself.  The great Mississippi River seemed forever flowing, flowing through his speech.”  When Twain took her to her room to say goodnight, he said “that I would find cigars and a thermos bottle with Scotch whiskey, or bourbon if I preferred it, in the bathroom.”  One evening, Twain offered to read to her from his short story, “Eve’s Diary”. She was delighted, and he asked, “How shall we manage it?”  She said, “Oh, you will read aloud, and my teacher will spell your words into my hand”.  He murmured, “I had thought you would read my lips!”  And so that is what she did! Upon request, and as promised, Twain put on his “Oxford robe” the gorgeous scarlet robe he had worn when Oxford University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Letters.   Here is Keller’s recollection of the evening:  “Mr. Clemens sat in his great armchair, dressed in his white serge suit, the flaming scarlet robe draping his shoulders, and his white hair gleaming and glistening in the light of the lamp which shone down on his head.  In one hand he held ‘Eve’s Diary’, with it’s glorious red cover.  In the other hand he held his pipe… I sat near him in a low chair, my elbow on the arm of his chair, so that my fingers could rest lightly on his lips.  Everything went smoothly for a time”.  But Twain’s gesticulations soon began to confuse things, so a “new setting was arranged.  Mrs. Macy came and sat beside me and spelled words into my right hand, while I looked at Mr. Twain with my left hand, touching his face and hands, and the book, following his gestures and every changing expression.”  Keller reflected further that, “to one hampered and circumscribed as I am it was a wonderful experience to have a friend like Mr. Clemens.  I recall many talks with him about human affairs.  He never made me feel that my opinions were worthless…He knew that we do not think with eyes and ears, and that our capacity for thought is not measured by five senses.  He kept me always in mind while he talked, and he treated me like a competent human being. That is why I loved him…There was an about him an air of one who had suffered greatly.  Whenever I touched his face his expression was real sad, even when he was telling a funny story!  He smiled, not with his mouth but with his mind-a gesture of the soul rather than of the face.  His voice was truly wonderful. To my touch, it was deep and resonant.  He had the power of modulating it so as to suggest the most delicate shades of meaning and he spoke so deliberately that I could get almost every word with my fingers on his lips.  Ah, how sweet and poignant the memory of his soft slow speech playing over my listening fingers.  His words seemed to take strange lovely shapes on my hands.  His own hands were wonderfully mobile and changeable under the influence of emotion.  It has been said that life has treated me harshly; and sometimes I have complained in my heart because many pleasures of the human experience have been withheld from me, but when I recollect the treasure of the friendship that has been bestowed upon me, I withdraw all charges against life.  If much has been denied me, very much has been given me.  So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good!”  When Helen Keller left the enchanted land of Stormfield on that visit, she wondered if she would ever see her friend again, and she didn’t!  It was 1909, and Clemens would live just one more year.  But she writes for us, “IN MY FINGERTIPS WAS GRAVEN THE IMAGE OF HIS DEAR FACE WITH ITS HALO OF SHINING WHITE HAIR, AND IN MY MEMORY HIS DRAWLING, MARVELOUS VOICE WILL ALWAYS VIBRATE!”  What a story of the life-changing influence that Mark Twain had over the life of Helen Keller.  Vivid images of his great personality, and memories of her experiences with him continued to fill her life with joy for over 50 years!

     The Apostle John, some 60 plus years after he had walked in the shoes of his Master, Lord, and Savior Jesus, his memory is still filled with vivid memories of what he had heard Him teach and speak, what he had seen Him do, and even the times that they to touched Him, and been touched by Him.  All these memories were thoughts to be relived and meditated on, to allow them to have their maximum impact on them.  According to the Ancient historian Eusebius, John was asked by the Ephesian elders to write those memories, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, into what would later be called the Gospel of John.  What a simple but profound narrative, with simple but deep theological truths that has delighted all of Jesus’ disciples who never had the chance to see His Dear face, hear his resounding voice, felt His loving embrace, or follow literally in His footsteps.  John followed that Gospel up with three epistles, the last literature of the Inspired New Testament, to tell his little children that it was not only memories that are available to them of the Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, but His very person and power, through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit can still be incarnated into our flesh, and we will find, like Peter walking on water by His command, following in His steps, Walking in Life, Walking in Light, Walking in Liberty, Walking in Love, and Walking in Loyalty “We will walk as He walked” and “As He is, so are we in the world”.  The world has not seen the last of Jesus!  If we experience Him as John tells us that we can, sightings of Jesus won’t be on “grilled cheese sandwiches” or “on shadows on the side of barns”, or in the strangest places!  Our transformed lives, will testify to the true Word of Life, who was tangible and true to His first followers, and He still lives on through us 2100 years later! LET HIS GRAVEN IMAGE, HIS DEAR FACE, HIS FINGERTIP MEMORIES, AND HIS MARVELOUS VOICE KEEP ON VIBRATING IN OUR MINDS, BUT MOSTLY IN OUR LIVES!  HE IS THE WORD OF LIFE.  LET HIM COMMUNICATE HIS LIFE TO YOU IN WORDS ALL THE WORLD THAT SEEKS HIM WILL UNDERSTAND.  IT’S IN HOW YOU WALK! SO, THE WALK OF LIFE!

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