VBS for this year:
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SUNDAY MORNING from the pastor February 16, 2003 Snow. It is a little past 6:30 a.m. and things seem pretty light out--even though there is no sign of the sun. The sky is a solid pastel blue. With all the snowfall, it hasn't been real dark around here now for several days--even in the middle of the night. The church ski trip was planned for this weekend. The group made it as far as Bloomington, IL on Friday night. And after long deliberation, they turned back, spent the night at the church, and hoped to try again Saturday morning. But when they awoke Saturday morning, the road conditions were worse than the night before, so they spent some time sledding and called it a weekend. Alison is home for the weekend, and the two of us spent most of the day inside--a rarity. With driving conditions so hazardous, we hunkered down in the living room, got hold of some old family movies that she had never seen, and found our spirits transported to other places and times. As we watched these old videos, I couldn't avoid thinking about the effects of passing time. We saw kids now grown up, adults now grown heavy, and events of once paramount importance now grown dim. A number of relatives and friends and church members appeared in the videos--and they are now passed from this life. Some of the little children--then frisky, funny, and fragile--are now grown into complex and uncertain young adults. One of our cars, then shiny and new--was totaled in a wreck several years later and now sits stripped in a junkyard. But it is not despair. The people, places, and events portrayed in the videos have become the rich humus for life today--the decomposed experiences of life--essential to hope and joy for THESE days. The videos we watched of the past bid us to count our blessings. They invited us to re-value the people and times of our lives. They beckoned us to integration--recovering the wholeness of who we are--as revealed by joys and adventures long forgotten. I sometimes think that God has a purpose behind snowstorms. Never convenient, they are nevertheless filled with potential. Severed from our usual connections and routines, we must turn inward. It is an "inside" time--inside our homes, inside our memories, inside our hearts. I am eager to see whoever is able to make it to church this morning. Our worship services will have that wonderful flavor of those times when only a few hardy souls brave the elements to welcome each other and praise God. So on with this new day! --Mike |
