Turn the Page

          Back in the early 70’s, I worked as a library clerk for three years under the “work study” program while I earned my BA in education. I loved that old library with its cathedral windows and rows and rows of dark tables and chairs.  The open reading area had every kind of reference book available, but my favorites were the unabridged dictionaries that lay open on individual stands in four different locations around that huge room.  Three of the dictionaries were about three feet by two and when closed had to be about one foot deep, but there was one that was even more massive.  It sat in the place of honor close to the check out desk where everyone could see it.  It even had its own spotlight.  

One had to use both hands to turn pages and not damage this amazing book, so I joked with my fellow library clerks it must be what the book of life looked like that St. Peter kept at the pearly gates of Heaven.  (This was the early 70’s, so God hadn’t invented “the cloud” yet.) In it we each have one page, and when we show up upon our death, St. Peter thumbs through and tallies our debits and credits, then doles out our fate.

The waiting part must seem like limbo.

It does not matter if we existed on Earth for a few seconds or one hundred years, each one of us has a page, a score sheet summary of our life.

As I bump along and good and bad happens, I wonder what gets tallied on my page. Are there more red line items than black?  Does how the influence we had on others count (or subtract) in our favor? 

What will be the sum total of my life on Earth? Will it earn me a place among the angels?