Intercession and Time Travel

I have come to believe that sometimes we “stand in the breach” when we do the simple tasks of our daily life. To me, standing in the breach is the work of intercession, and like Meg and her brothers in the Madeleine L’Engle Time series books, I have faith that we can change eternal circumstances simply by being where we’re supposed to be at the right time. In A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Charles Wallace changed a pivotal situation which turned out a whole lot better than it might otherwise have turned out. Sometimes all we have to do is show up.

A few years ago, I was teaching at a middle school in the foothills of South Carolina. I loved the school, the students, their culture, and my colleagues. It was a happy place to be, and a family kind of atmosphere was prominent. Each year, I would assign a project to my 8th graders called Family Stories. The mountain folk know how to tell stories, and I wanted my students to learn how to be ethnographers of their region. Each student had to collect one family story, relay it to class, and create a visual of family photos and quotes to share. On the due date, parents, grandparents, and other guests would come to school and bring wonderful home-cooked dishes to share while their children told the stories they had collected for their project.

One bright, but under-motivated student named Kamdon decided to interview his grandmother on his father’s side, but when he asked her permission, his grandmother told him that he actually had a famous great-grandmother who would be a much more interesting subject. As it turned out, Kamdon was unaware that this great-grandmother even lived, but once he had an inkling of her existence, he would not let the subject die.

You see, it turned out that Kamdon’s mom and her dad were estranged—had not spoken to each other in years, and Kamdon’s mom would have to have contact with her dad in order to see her grandmother.

Hope Caler Brown is a wood carver. She and her husband Glenn carved with John C. Campbell Folk School instructor Murrial Martin in the 1940s. In 1942, Hope Brown made more than $250 from carving, more than any other woman carver. Her sales were topped by only a handful of male carvers. Having raised eight children, Hope Brown has said that carving kept the family off welfare. Unlike many carvers who worked from patterns or drawings, Brown designed her own patterns and shared them with other carvers.1 Hope Caler Brown is Kamdon’s great-grandmother.

The outcome of this story is quite sweet. Kamdon got his interview with his great-grandmother. His presentation received an A+, and something akin to a miracle happened for Kamdon’s family. I received the following note a few weeks later:

Ms. Atkins,

Being that it is “Teacher Appreciation Week” Kamdon & I would like to give you this carving in appreciation of the interest you have shown in Kamdon and our family. A few weeks ago I wrote to my grandmother and told her that you had mentioned to me that you would like to have a piece of her work, so she made this piece for you.

I also wanted to thank you again for assigning the family stories project to your students. You have no idea what it has meant to our family. To make a long story short, this project has bridged a gap in mine and my father’s relationship that I had thought could never be bridged. And for that, I will be eternally grateful.

I did nothing overt in that situation. I was and am a teacher, and as a teacher, intercession for my students is an important part of who I am as a follower of the Christ. I stood in the breach and offered Kamdon (and his mother) an opportunity to explore their real family story—a story of reconciliation and passion. The lovely carved hummingbird sits atop my bureau reminding me each time I see it that we are all, indeed, part of the universe and that we belong to each other.

1 For more information on Hope Caler Brown’s carvings see The Hunter Library Digital Collections at Western Carolina University (http://www.wcu.edu/404.asp) and The John C. Campbell Folk Art School (https://www.folkschool.org/).