billy graham, barack obama, america's pastor, preacher, evangelist, Gospel, Jesus, grace, redemption, mercy, God's love, a father's love, blessing, 93rd birthday
President Obama with Dr. Billy Graham at the preacher's home in Motreat, N.C., 2010.
In the photograph, Dr. Graham is seated in a wooden chair, dressed casually in dungaree-blue slacks, an open-collar shirt and red sportcoat, and he looks straight ahead, his face in profile to the camera lens. “America’s Pastor,” as he is often called, is looking into the distance, to a place out of frame – his gaze fixed on something we cannot see.
I cherish that photograph of Dr. Graham for myriad reasons, but perhaps most importantly because it reminds me of the gift of vision – spiritual vision – to see things that are not of the physical realm. A sacred and holy perspective. An orientation of the heart and mind that looks beyond itself, to the More.
A vision of faith – the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen – and colored by grace, mercy and divine love.
Dr. Graham has such a vision – a mighty gift he has shared with the world for more than six decades. A gift he imparted to me as a child, sitting in the balcony of an old auditorium at Yale University in my native Connecticut in the mid-1980s, watching him preach during one of his famous crusades.