In the late 1840s, Ireland was an island of true misery. The potato famine, starvation, disease, harsh oppression by the English and emigration reduced the population by 2 million.

     One gray day in county Limerick, a messenger came running up to the small, whitewashed cottage of Michael and Margaret O’Reilly shouting, “Michael, his Lordship, the Knight of Glin, wants to see ye at once!”

“Oh, Michael”, cried Margaret, as he put on his cap and coat to leave with the messenger, “‘tis bad news his Lordship will be tellin’ ye – that we’re next to be evicted. We’ll be forced to join the long lines of the homeless. Oh God, what will happen to us?”

     Two hours later, however, Michael returned home jubilant. He told his wife that his Lordship had offered to pay his passage to America! The Knight of Glin, unlike the other landowners, did what he could to care for his tenant farmers in the midst of the great potato famine. And not too different from today, they all agreed that Michael would go 1st, and after getting settled in America, he’d send for Maggie and the kids.

Maggie asked, “When will ye be leavin’, Michael?”

     “That’s the only hitch, Maggie dear. Ye see, with the ships so crowded and passage so difficult these days, it’s necessary, his Lordship says, for me to be standin’ by. His Lordship said he wouldn’t know in advance when my passage would be available. I need to be ready to go at a moment’s notice. So, Maggie, m’ love, it could tomorrow or within the very hour.”

     Michael and Maggie set to work at once and packed an old, battered suitcase so that he would be ready to leave whenever his Lordship’s messenger might come. Michael, not wanting to miss his turn, never left the house without his suitcase. The 1st time he entered the village pub carrying it and was asked where he was going, he responded, “I’m standin’ by. I’m on my way to the Land o’ Promise, America, and I might get the word to leave this very hour. I wouldn’t have time, y’see, to go home to get me’ bag, so I’m carryin’ it with me.”

    The days quickly passed, but Michael never went anywhere without his old, battered suitcase. Mindful that he might receive word any moment that passage was available, he treated every visit with neighbors or friends as if it were the last. From the day he began to carry his suitcase, his favorite adjective became ‘precious’. After viewing a rainbow over the village or finishing a simple evening meal with Maggie and the kids, he would exclaim, “Ah, precious! What a treasure!”

     The days of waiting turned into weeks, but Michael lost none of his excitement about emigrating to the ‘Land o’ Promise’, as they all called America. Whenever he would be invited to a wedding or asked to do something ‘next week’, he would always respond, “Well, God willin’, I’ll be there. You know, I’m standin’ by.” As a result, all the villagers of Glin looked upon their neighbor as a mite zany, calling their friend who always carried a suitcase, ‘Michael Standin’ By’. He didn’t mind the humorous name. In fact, he told Maggie it only helped him to stay alert, ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

    One month to the day after his Lordship’s messenger had come to their small cottage, a neighbor, Thomas Meehan, came by asking if Michael could help him put up hay. It looked it might rain, and the hay was ripe and ready. Michael grabbed his suitcase and told Maggie, “I might not have another chance to do a favor for m’ friend Tom. I best go at once.” He kissed her goodbye with the same intensity that had characterized his life ever since the suitcase had become his constant companion. As Mike climbed onto Meehan’s wagon with his suitcase, the other men greeted him with good-humored joking, “Welcome aboard, Michael Standin’ By, ‘tis to the hay field though, not to the Land o’ Promise that we be goin’ today.” But he only smiled and laughed. Looking back at Maggie standing in the doorway of their small cottage, he waved as he repeated to himself, “Precious, precious.”

     In the middle of the afternoon, as dark rain clouds swept down low over the hills along the River Shannon, Maggie saw Tom Meehan’s wagon loaded up with hay pulling into the yard. Tom, with cap in hand, was at the door when she opened it. “Maggie, I’m sorry, but …”

“Tom, I know what you’re goin’ to say. Michael’s no longer standin’ by, is he? Well, he was more ready to go than any of the others on his Lordship’s waitin’ list, now wasn’t he?”

     “Right you are, Maggie, he was more than ready to go.” Tom Meehan turned slightly and stepped a bit to the side. As he did, she could see the hay field workers carrying the body from the wagon to the cottage. Michael Standin’ By had indeed found the Land of Promise.

     A sad story or a joyous one? Or do we know until the very end? Lent is like that … a moving toward a marvelous promise, a Messiah’s changing of the world. Yet the anticipation was so vastly different than the way the reality played itself out. At the beginning of the week to come there were palms of honor, the singing of hosannas, the expectation of an overthrow of a political regime.

    And then quickly all that was seen became the evil of the world for those next days, the worst of humanity, and not its best, with the crashing down of all dreams. But out of the ashes, out of the grave, then comes the incredible Land of Promise as Jesus arises on Easter, setting a permanent covenant rainbow across our hearts.

     This story about Michael is about rainbows don’t you think? He was always prepared for the best. And it came. Noah and his family. Do you think that they prepared for the best or the worst? And which was it that came for them? Which was it for Jesus?

     Or are the 2 intrinsically intertwined? Like rainbows which are but a combination of rain and sun and the awesome appearance of a path between earth and heaven? Some talk about heaven on earth and our part in being an arc in Christ’s name as well, making a bridge between these two.

     But I suppose most of us are inclined more toward one kind of preparation than the other. Which is yours? Suitcase packed in case of disaster, with energy bars, blankets, water bottles, Tylenol, 5 sizes of bandages, investments diversified including heavy metals? All smart moves. And traumas absolutely will occur in every life.

     Michael Standin’ By reminds us, however, how very earthly that physical and financial preparation is. Do our suitcases contain equal preparations for talking and listening to God, for noticing and exclaiming about all that is ‘precious’, for enjoying the moments we are in the midst of, for discovering joy, recognizing the Christ in one another, for being a good neighbor?

     How many times have we missed a rainbow because our gaze was intent on missing a puddle, or gabbling with text messages? How many times have we failed to receive a child’s welcoming hug because we stayed late at work and missed their bedtime? We miss things both because we aren’t open to them happening, and because they happen all the time and we take them for granted and so do not really notice them.

     If we are truly prepared for life, will we also be prepared for death, whenever that comes? And if we are prepared for death, will that lead us on an arc of color into life? How prepared are you? Are you Standin’ By?

     May the Land of Promise be your destination! Amen.