SUNDAY MORNING

from the pastor

May 4, 2003

I woke up in Urbana this morning. For the past two weeks, I've been waking up in hotel rooms in Italy, France, and England. My bed here in Urbana is nearly as large as some of those rooms. But regardless of the country or the size of the room, I have been surrounded with beauty day after day.

Today is no exception. My yard has turned purple since I left on Easter Day. Iris and lilac predominate. A rabbit (not a purple one) sits--still--across the yard--waiting. (What do rabbits wait for? Another rabbit? A cabbage to roll by? ) The sun is already a bright yellow as it blazes through the thick leaves of the next street over. And all around there is a harmony in nature this morning. And until those of us in the human race begin our unnatural rat race, we too are momentarily a part of that harmony.

It has been a joy for me to spend the past two weeks with my daughter Mindy. She is studying in England this semester, and I was able to join her for the last week of her three week spring break. We met up in Rome and then took trains to spend time in Florence, Pisa, Venice, Verona, Switzerland, Paris, Hull (England), and York.

I spent all of last Sunday on trains--some which worked and some which didn't. We were scheduled to spend the day on four different trains, from Verona to Milan to Geneva to Lyon to Paris. We got up at 6 a.m. to make the first train in Verona. But neither Mindy or I could understand the Italian speech being given over the loud speaker. As we sat on the train, waiting for it to leave, we DID understand that nobody else stayed on it. And we DID understand that the train didn't leave when it was supposed to. It turns out that the train was broken and we couldn't get to Milan until an hour later. By that time we missed all our other connections. We patched together an itinerary, however, and made it to Paris at half past midnight.

The directions to our room in Paris were via the subway--changing trains once. We caught the first train and then sat waiting for the second, about 1 a.m. As the two of us waited, all alone, deep in the bowels of Paris, another announcement came through the loud speaker. This time in French. I took French in high school for two years. But that= s been over thirty years ago, and you must pardon MY French. We didn't understand that announcement either. But we did eventually get the idea that the subway had closed for the day. Fortunately they don= t lock people in at night. We found our way out and hailed a taxi to get to the room we'd rented.

All this is to let you know what happens when one skips out on church. Let those who have ears hear. I must add, however, that the trains which DID work, which carried us through northern Italy and the Swiss Alps, transported us to places of rapture and glory. God is good.

It was a wonderful trip. And I= m happy to be back, especially with my church and friends. --Mike

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