Sandy the Librarian

The Pleasant Grove branch of the Sutter County Library is housed inside a "portable" building right next to the elementary school. Inside, beneath its three rows of fluorescent lights, a table and several chairs are surrounded by the library's collection of mostly juvenile books. Against the wall is another table, with three computers for doing online research.

Behind the small counter sits Sandy the librarian. I met Sandy the other day. I had been substitute teaching at the school, and came into the library after school to check my email, work on my sermon, and wait for my wife to get off work in town and come pick me up. However, I had a lot of emails to read, and my cell phone kept ringing, so I never really did get around to working on my sermon.

Sandy and I were the only ones present, so we started talking. I learned that, when the library closed at 4:30, Sandy would be leaving, would drive right by my house, and could give me a ride home.

So, when 4:30 came, Sandy turned her key in the library door, locking it, and we walked out to her ten year-old blue minivan in the parking lot. Its paint had lost its luster, and the sliding power door no longer worked. Sandy opened the front passenger door, and moved several copies of that morning's newspaper to the backseat. "My husband was in the paper today," she explained. "He's next in line to be the Earl of Essex."

"I read that article this morning," I said as I took my seat. "It said you got to go on a trip to England.... How was it?"

Sandy climbed into the driver's seat and started the car. "It was great! We had the TV cameras following us for two of the three days we were there, but that was fine." Sandy then proceeded to tell me some of the sights she saw on her trip, and about her and her husband's plans to return for another visit.

I knew from reading the article that Sandy's trip to England was paid for by the TV show "Inside Edition." When the producers of the show discovered that Sandy's husband was the fourth cousin, once removed, of the current Earl of Essex, and the next-in-line to hold that title, they wanted to feature the two of them on their show. It's supposed to air tomorrow, November 4.

Once I got home, I thought about my "ride with royalty." If someone were to ask me what type of car a person of royal blood would drive, a beat-up mini van would not be my first guess.... Royalty, I guess, comes in many different shapes and forms.

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood....