Then he was no more

To scare the nasty cold germs lurking in my chest, I bought the ingredients for Carolyn's Kick-A-Bug Juice. I lined them up on the kitchen half wall and stepped back.
"Tomorrow," I warned the viruses populating my chest and nose, "If you don't skedaddle, I mix all those vile things together and pour them down my throat. Consider yourself forewarned."
I made a doctor appointment also for tomorrow, in case the combination of viral threats and Kick-A-Bug juice didn't deliver the hoped for cure. Then I settled down and did what I haven't done enough of since getting sick. I rested.

Asherel was busily working on her Science Olympiad Trebuchet and Helicopter while I sketched the empty stool in the sunroom, the sun dancing across it's empty seat. I love empty chairs. There is so much expectation, anticipation, potential wonder that might settle on that stool. Will a future Scientist or famous artist sit there, or perhaps a future Supreme Court Justice that will finally convince our country to not ban hydrogenated oils in french fries that may clog our arteries but to ban procedures that murder developing babies?  Or maybe, just maybe, someday a writer who has published a book will sit on that stool, and remember the years of honing her craft and knocking on doors slammed in her face. She will watch the sun flicker across hands weathered by years and years of living, and drawing empty stools.

My coughing and sneezing was slowing notably the more I glanced at the Kick-A-Bug ingredients lined up on the shelf. They too were waiting. The whole world was holding its breath. The empty chair was still faintly warm from the sun beams though the sky was dark, and I was ready for bed. And then I read my email.
The agent who has my proposal for my book had finally replied. Six months of waiting was over. I didn't want to read her note. I have had so much discouragement, so much disappointment. Sometimes it is better to just look on the empty chair and imagine what might be rather than look at the failure of a dream that eventually settles there.

But I read the email. Ultimately, I would have to. She liked it. She liked my proposal and loved what I had done. She noted, as all the agents who have looked at my work have noted, that I don't have a "platform". That means I don't have hundreds of thousands of readers begging me to publish my book. She asked if my 20,000 hits on my blog were daily, weekly or monthly? Ohoh.  How about yearly? Why didn't she mention yearly?

Dear readers, I need a platform. If all of you just forward this post to ten thousand friends, I think I am almost there. I don't know what she will ultimately decide. I have gotten many notes from agents that agonize over my work saying they think it has potential, but ultimately, it is hard to promote a nobody.

I am not the only nobody that ever lived. I can take heart that some nobodies are even listed in the Bible.
Perhaps my favorite is Enoch. Enoch is the son of Cain, and in the list of all those early people who live a few hundred years, and then die.... Enoch alone is described a living and then "he was no more."  Before I tell you the rest of that wonderful verse about a nobody.... what exactly did Enoch do that got him this special treatment? A word search of every time Enoch is mentioned shows that Enoch had kids, like many nobodies.  His father named a city after him, but that had nothing to do with Enoch or his achievements. It was just the equivalent of handing out cigars back then. As far as we can tell, Enoch didn't work any miracles, save any people, lead any focus groups, or build or write or paint or invent.  There is only one sentence that tells us what Enoch did- 
"After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters." (Genesis 5:22)

That's all he did.... he walked faithfully with God 300 years. Lest we think too highly of Enoch, he lived 365 years, and one has to wonder what wild oats he was sowing for those first 65, since he only walked faithfully a mere 300. But the point is he didn't do anything that the world would find of particular note. He was a nobody, but he was a faithful nobody and he loved God. And in the end, he was rewarded by "being no more."

If the sentence ended there, we might all just as well throw in the towel.  In the end, we all are "no more", whether we are a nobody or a somebody.  Maybe it is better just to gaze at empty chairs and not bother to fill them..... but wait!! There is more to the sentence.....
²⁴ Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.(Gen.5)

God took him! He was no more here because God took him there....to be with God. His faithfulness was rewarded by the only reward he ever wanted, the reward his whole life of faith had prepared him for. He was in the eternal presence of the God he had waited faithfully for three hundred years to see.

I guess really the chair is never empty. We think it is, but it always holds the promise of significance, the symbol of faith. For faith is the presence of things unseen. And even nobodies can see God sitting there, pumping His fist in the air, and swirling the air with hope and promise.

Hebrews 11: 1-6

 ¹ Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for.  ³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
 ⁴ By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
 ⁵ By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

PS- Many folks read this post and wrote to tell me how sorry they were. The agent has not rejected me (at least not yet)- she is seeking more information and is interested. I just need to work on my "platform" and updating my proposal.