(This is reprinted intact from this website from March, 2010.)
They called the other day and invited me to speak in chapel at a local Christian high school. I was delighted and told them what I usually do.
They said, “That’s fine. But another time. This time, we need something else.”
What I often do in high school assemblies, I told her, was to set my easel up on the gym floor and get two or three students out of the audience and caricature them. Then, for the piece de resistance, stand the principal before them and sketch him/her. After that, give them my 10 or 15 minute talk on lessons learned from a lifetime of drawing people on the subject of self-image, self-acceptance, and faith in the Lord who made us.
She said, “That sounds great. And we’d like to have you back to do that sometime. But we need something else from you this time.”
“One of our students is dying,” she said. “And it has shaken the entire student body. We need you to minister to us.”
The next day the student went to Heaven.
Today is Friday, the chapel service is Tuesday morning.
Get that? This Sunday is Palm Sunday, the next Sunday is Easter, and in between we’re going to have a service to talk about death and life.