MemChurch Daily
April 13, 2021
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PRACTICING HOPE
The daily newsletter of the Memorial Church
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Dear friends,
Today we are delighted to share with you a reflection by Nari Johnson '21 of Cabot House in our Virtual Senior Talks series of 2021. Senior Talks are a beloved annual tradition in which each House at the College is invited to nominate a senior to offer a Morning Prayers address. We are honored to continue this tradition virtually this year by way of uplifting their reflections in our Daily Devotional. Thank you Nari, today we celebrate you and all your fellow Cabot House seniors!
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The Memorial Church of Harvard University
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SENIOR TALKS
Cabot House's Nari Johnson '21
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Nari Johnson visits Panama City Beach last fall.
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By Nari Johnson '21
Cabot House
Carved into a bench in the Lakeview Memory Gardens cemetery in Phenix City, Alabama is the phrase: “Heaven is all around you.”
The first of many times my father’s father, my Papa, said this to me was as we sat side-by-side on pool chairs in Panama City Beach, Fla. Throughout the day, I would accumulate bucketfuls of seashells as we walked barefoot down the beach. My seashell curation tickled my grandparents to no end, the way I cherished something that was so omnipresent, so worthless. Maybe this was why as we sat together, watching the sun paint the whole ocean gold, I saw heaven too.
As a young girl, I adored my Papa. He had a way of filling up space, with his six-foot-seven stature and feet too big for any shoes in the department store and baritone that filled up the church. But he didn’t just worship God in church every Sunday. He worshipped God everywhere, and in everything. He worshipped the mundane, from his fascination with his smoothie-maker to the sunsets that he insisted were pieces of heaven on earth.
Last year, I went back to Panama City for the first time since my Papa's passing. We drove straight into a storm that turned the sky so black we couldn’t separate night from day. We hid inside as back roads filled with water that met the sea.
When it ended, the beach was made new again, palm fronds and seashells scattered from their distant homes. After the storm, I did all the things we used to do together. I picked up the shells. I watched the sun set. I saw it all through his eyes. The tears didn’t come like they used to. Instead, all I felt was warmth. Like the feeling I get when I sing in church, when I hold my heart open to witness the beauty of God’s grace. Like his hand holding mine when we were sitting together in those pool chairs.
Nari Johnson is from Dublin, Ohio. She attended Dublin Coffman High School and the Linworth United Methodist Church. She will be graduating this May with a BA and MS in Computer Science.
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