Pastor Annette's Blog
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"OF ALL THE THINGS GOD HAS SHOWN ME, I CAN SPEAK BUT A LITTLE WORD . . . NOT MORE THAN A HONEYBEE CAN CARRY AWAY ON ITS FOOT FROM AN OVERFLOWING JAR."
~ MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG, 13TH CENTURY MYSTIC |
May 27, 2025
Beloved: My favorite month (weather-wise) is very nearly over and it has been practically perfect in every way - save the EF-2 that whizzed far too close to my neighborhood on the 17th. The air is still so mild and no mosquitoes yet. My flowerbeds are coming along and the days are so, so looooooooong! Last night I sat outside with my neighbor until after 9. Positively delightful! But with June come other favorites, like hanging out with my granddaughter at the neighborhood pool. By the middle of last summer she’d turned into a little frog, leaping off the side all by herself, going underwater, paddling and kicking all around the shallow side in her watermelon life jacket. This year she’ll start swimming lessons and her baby brother will come with us. Also, and of course, Vacation Bible School! June 9-12, 6-8 PM every evening - with light supper at 5:30 for volunteers and their families. This year’s theme tracks the story of Joseph in ways kids will enjoy, but even more important than the story itself is the time spent with volunteers from three congregations – UBC, Red Door and, new this year, Sacred Heart Church – who love kids and are committed to building a healthy, loving church experience into their lives and memories. It’s some of the most important work we do and I love it. You can help by praying for the work, inviting families you know to attend, giving money to help pay for it (the estimated cost is $700) and by volunteering your time to help during the get-ready week (June 1-8), to make the VBS week a success (June 9-12) or to clean up and reset the church (June 15). Email us at [email protected] and we will get you in touch with our vbs director. Even a couple of hours or a few dollars helps. Then in July, I get to see my best friend of 41 years, and in August my newest grandbaby turns 1.* Every month has something to love, something to mark the gift it is to be alive, to belong to a community of good people, and to do good work that matters. I am grateful to live and work among the likes of you. ~peace & prayers, pastor annette *Picture above right – though they’ve lived together his whole 9-month life, the baby just now noticed Watson the dog, and they are pals.
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May 20, 2025
Beloved: When, do you suppose, is a preacher most likely to discover a burst pipe at home? Sunday mornings, of course, around 7:30 am. When she walks into her closet and freezy cold water squishes from the carpet over her bare feet. I left the hose spigot on overnight, which wouldn’t have mattered except the pipe in the wall most likely froze and burst over the winter. I learned this by calling the plumber’s emergency number. I turned off the spigot right away and after church discovered wet carpet in the hallway and my second bedroom as well. I’ve had industrial fans running since, and along with open windows it’s starting to dry out. Trees got my regular plumber’s place in last week’s tornado, so they can’t come. Of the other three I called, only one called back and he’ll be here in a bit to fix the pipe. And I’ve ordered two of these, a $10 prevention of what I expect to cost twenty times that. Go figure. I guess I’m lucky it's the only time I’ve had a burst pipe in all the years I’ve been keeping house. Then there’s the privilege of having a house to keep in the first place, a roof over me, a door to close or open as I choose, a soft and warm bed to sleep in every night, a pantry full of good things to eat at any hour I choose. The only faithful response is good stewardship - sharing, not hoarding, also called hospitality, and caring for this tiny speck of planet as best I can. In her Crosswicks Journals, about the 200-year-old house she shared with her family in Connecticut, Madeleine L’Engle wrote, having a house is like having another child in that it is always begging for something. I try to remember her when my pipes burst or an appliance dies, or my living room floor is covered in crayons and paper, tea sets and books, dollhouse furniture and dolls . . . the remnants of such wealth I could not earn in three lifetimes. But I can sit lightly with the trouble, not grumbling too much about cost or inconvenience, even if I do keep stepping on wet carpet in my socks. The day is wet as a duck outside but hopefully this note finds you dry and warm.
May 13, 2025
Beloved: The nameplate outside the door said, Miss Hill ~ Grade 3, and yet I knew for sure I was dreaming of the future, not the past. The prior teacher had left me all her things so I wasn’t nervous except for how tiny my classroom was. As my students tumbled in, it got even smaller ~ but somehow also bigger. And happier. I shared an office with the teacher in the classroom next door. He was a quilter, of course. The dream only needed a garden and a golden retriever for my whole life to be covered! Our heads and hearts are so packed with memory and information, even our dreams cannot hold it all up to the light for us, but the dreams that show me the sweet parts make it worth waking up to this world again. Besides, it’s springtime in Indiana. Irises and pinies (peonies to you fancy people) are exploding and folks are getting in their gardens. I can hear a chipmunk chirruping as they rebuild their eleventy-hundredth nest inside the downspout by my study window while everything is blanketed in yellow pollen. I don’t deserve to be this happy. I have not been good enough nor done enough good to be as happy as such dreams prove I am. Such is grace – the gift of God and the capacity of people to receive the joy stitched into creation. Joy not manufactured by any human effort but exclusively divine, in origin and design. Ours is to notice and be grateful, to eat and drink at this table of grace, enough to be carried through the hard and scary parts of life in this world, back to the table again and again for a lifetime. And, maybe, now and then to sleep and dream of times and places as perfect as a third grade classroom full of kids and books and art projects hanging in a window. Bloomington may get a little more rain today, my new plants will drink it up, and my irises will sparkle all the more. I pray the day holds some perfection for you too. |
I write a Tuesday morning devotional to members and friends of UBC. It is also posted here.
Enjoy! Pastor Annette Copyright
Everything on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons license, which gives you permission to copy freely, provided that you attribute the work to me, that you use the work for non-commercial purposes, and that you do not produce derivative works. Archives
June 2025
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