Dear Bishop,
Today is my grandson's tenth birthday. He figures into this year's holiday letter to the bishops in two ways.
First, he appeared in the New York City Ballet's NUTCRACKER as one of the dozen children in the opening twenty minutes. Which means we got to see him and the rest of the cast perform, of course. Our son finagled fifth row seats near the orchestra so we saw everything, including him disappearing for a few moments to fix the broken heal on his shoe. We also were close enough to see just how much force the two principal dancers had to use to maintain leverage. We were amazed that what looks so effortless from a distance requires such skill and strength.
That reminded me of what it takes to be a pastor and how we may not realize the expenditure of energy it takes sometimes to do it right and yet to outsiders it looks like it should be so simple. There really is no way to appreciate that without actually being there. That goes for your job and it goes for your pastors'.
Second, for all his maturity, my grandson has maintained his belief in Santa Claus up till just recently. Who wants to let go of something like that! On the other hand, he is old enough and astute enough to now want to start buying presents for the rest of us. So it is time to share with him the four stages of Santa: 1. Believe in Santa; 2. No longer believe in Santa; 3. Become Santa; and finally, look like Santa!
May these holy days bless you and yours.
In the covenant of the clergy,
Jerry
Rev. Jerry Eckert, retired Elder
Wisconsin Annual Conference
No comments:
Post a Comment