April is my favorite month. Everything is new and fresh. The budding trees and new flowers are a promise of better things to come.
This spring / April have been especially lovely with the exception of several unpleasant storms and tornado watches and warnings that never use to be so prevalent in our area, but are now. It’s still been a lovely spring and still my most favorite month.
This April has been full and busy and every time I thought I’d have a minute to write a blog entry, I didn’t. I haven’t been lacking for blog subjects … just time. I wanted to write about our cat, Phoebe’s newest enjoyment, entertainment and toy that has been instrumental in chasing away her “cat boredom” but haven’t had a minute to get that done.
Mainly I wanted to write about our club’s 35th. Anniversary Party that 53 people attended, the majority of which were dressed like their favorite singers (dead or alive). Willy and I dressed as Lady Gaga and Elvis (I was Gaga in case there’s any confusion). I won’t go into detail about either of those topics because there’s still a chance that I may find time to write about them. Unfortunately, that won’t be today. I simply don’t have time.
As so often happens, I got the inspiration for this entry this morning in church. We’re Methodists (well, Baptists turned Methodist, which is a story in itself) and Methodist folks seem to move their ministers around a lot, so we’ve had a few since Willy and I “converted” and went over to the “Methodist side.” My feeling about denominations, though, is that as long as you are IN church, it hardly makes a difference which one it is. Some would disagree but I think being faithful and WANTING to be in church far outweighs the WHICH church. Anyway …
Our current minister is young, very enthusiastic and excited with his appointment. He is Korean and a very interesting person. His wife is also Korean and it is simply impossible not to succumb to their friendliness and be infected by the joy in life they so obviously feel. His commitment to his faith and his profession shines around him with a pure light.
This morning his sermon was about last week’s Earth Day and what it all means. In order not to have been swept along in his explanation of how we are stewards of the Earth and keepers of God’s world, one would have had to have been deeply asleep or perhaps comatose. We enjoyed every word.
Our minister always picks up his guitar close to the end of the service, his wife takes her seat at the piano and they send us all home on the good feelings, rhythm and words of a special song. It is always a lovely moment.
Today as Yosep and Christina were singing, I thought to myself how their songs and that special part of the service would be among the things I remember most about them and their time with us; that and their obvious joy at being a part of the faith that so obviously wraps them in its warmth and urges us all to be a part of that special cocoon.
And while the music played and drifted off a bit, I drifted off a bit to a unique place in my mind. I thought about the special moments I remembered about previous ministers. The music and the atmosphere were a perfect setting for me to have an almost “Academy Award” flashback … a slide show of happy memories of people and moments brought freshly into my mind for a quick “revisit” on a warm, spring morning in that special place.
I remembered Pastor Sandra, our first female minister and the person who married us, looking down at Willy and me and then to the congregation, saying, “I’d like to present to you Mr. and Mrs. Willy Smith.”
I have a perfect visual memory of Pastor Bob on his motorcycle and Pastor George on “Holy Humor Sunday;” an annual event he brought to our church that most of us enjoyed.
Pastor George encouraged us all to dress in funny outfits and to laugh, which we did. If you do a Google Search of ‘images of Holy Humor Sunday,’ there among the pictures and cartoons you will find a photo of Willy and me at church dressed as Homer and Marge Simpson on Holy Humor Sunday. George and his wife, Rebecca dressed as clowns and instilled in us the thought that God has a sense of humor. On the pulpit there was an artist’s rendering of Jesus laughing. The idea that God has a sense of humor is something that I will always associate with Pastor George. That first Sunday that we had Holy Humor Sunday and George asked that question, “Does God have a sense of humor?” I remember smiling and answering to myself, “Of course He does …”
Pastor Josh, young and freshly out of school, came to us with so much hope and promise. We immediately loved him and he loved us back. We invested in his future because he clearly was invested in ours.
My most immediate and clearly etched visual of Josh was at our church’s Homecoming … the 110th. Anniversary when, at the end of that day of service, fellowship, entertainment, good food and excitement he took off his jacket and proceeded to dig up, in his pastor’s shirt and collar, the time capsule previously planted on/in the church lawn 30 years before. Josh and some of the men of the church were able to drag that concrete capsule out of the ground and Josh reverently opened it. What was inside wasn’t important. What is … in my “Academy Award” slide show in my mind is the look of pure joy on our pastor’s face as he worked to unearth that capsule containing relics from the history of our church. I am blessed to have that memory.
Our aging church “family” has begun to leave more and more pews unfilled as some become residents of nursing homes and spend more time away due to illness, but the faces and memories of time spent with those caring people are also a huge part of my “slide show.”
As the service came to a close, Pastor Yosep and Christina made their way to the narthex where they left us with a hug, a personal word, a smile and the promise of future frames in my “slide show.”
It was an unexpected delight to have a moment of unfiltered good memories this morning as Pastor Yosep and his wife surrounded us with lovely music and the stuff that Academy Award slide shows are made of.
I’m glad I was able this afternoon to write about this morning and the special memories I revisited. I’m glad I took the time ….
heimdalco 