A Wrinkle in Time is at the top of my favorite book series list. I found it as a mother reading to my children and never got over it. The intricacies of good and evil and time travel and the fantasy of the tesseract, with more dimensions than time and space gave eternity a concreteness that I hadn’t (or couldn’t) quite imagine before reading the series.

Ten years ago, I went to New York City to St. John the Divine Cathedral for noon Eucharist with my dear friend. Just two pews ahead of us sat Ms. L’Engle worshipping on a Tuesday. The service was nice, but seeing Ms. L’Engle made my day. Perhaps my heart wasn’t in the right place, but hers was. On a Tuesday.

My daughter just told me that Ms. L’Engle passed away yesterday at 88. Her writing was profound to me, her storytelling an emotional tapestry, transcending generations with her weaving of science fiction closely intertwined with a Biblical perspective. Her children’s literature superseded her other pieces. Her detail and conceptualizations challenged this adult mind, so imagine where it took a child’s fantasy and vision. She once said her children’s literature was far too complex for adults to understand. In Wrinkle, Meg, the teen hero, Charles Wallace, her five year old, eccentric, and often bullied little brother, and Calvin, all sojourn through time by means of tesseracts, described as “folding the fabric of space and time.”

Madeline, now you know face to Face, that your life is not irrelevant and you matter cosmically. So, to you, as you now are freed from your own wrinkle in time into Eternity, no longer subject to your failing health, or limited by aging or frailty, Godspeed and blessing before the ultimate and Eternal Throne of Grace and Peace.

Also, this day, Luciano Pavarotti’s funeral is being held in Modena, Italy. We will remember that voice, and these gifts from God…