Pastor’s Corner August 31st 2023

Dear Friends,

We had a lovely “blessing of the backpacks” two weeks ago, just before school started.  Some of our youth and children came forward and we blessed them and their bags, in addition to praying for the teachers and other staff at our schools, so that they would feel supported by FCC and led by God as they begin another school year.  We continue to pray for and support our kids, teachers, staff, parents and families.

 

Don’t you love the ways in which children interpret the world around them, including their perception of God and faith?  Once when my son was about 4 or 5 years old I asked him, after reading a story about angels, if he had ever seen an angel, and he said, “yes mom, there’s an angel that sits on my ceiling.”  He said it as if it was the most ordinary of circumstances.  My inability to see the angel on his ceiling did not cause me to doubt my son…rather it made me sad that for some reason, my “adult-hood” prohibited me from seeing something that was certainly there.  I didn’t have “eyes to see” and was therefore blind to the miracles around me.

 

But it doesn’t have to be that way.  “Tall friends”, or adults, can still see through the eyes of children if we pray that God would help to open our hearts so we can once again see God’s work in this world through the eyes of a child.  We should all cultivate wonder.  Three steps toward doing this are: 1) recognizing the beauty in this amazing creation in which we live.  Seeing the spider web gilded in dew in the morning, marveling in the power and might of a thunderstorm on a summer evening, hearing the haunting sounds of a loon on a Minnesota lake.  These are ways we can begin to see the wonder of God’s creation.  2) Recognizing the beauty within us.  How is it that God knew how to knit us together: did we really need an appendix, why do we have two arms instead of three, and how come feet are shaped the way they are?  Truly we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”.  And, finally, 3) recognizing our limitations.  This is a healthy way of seeing God’s ways.  There are so many things we are incapable of doing, but we know that God can, and this reminds us of how awesome God is and how much we need God in our lives.

 

Learning to have “wonder” is a way of seeing through the eyes of a child.  Whether you find ways to be playful, laugh more, or finally build your dream treehouse, let us all attempt to see the world as children see it: as the blessing and awe-inspiring thing it is.  When we can see through a child’s eyes, we can be more aware of the miracles in this world, and that is a gift we could all use.

 

Have a great week and see you Sunday!

Kara