October 01st, 2013

Beloved:

I often take the back roads between home and church.  It's no slower and the view is better; chickens, milk cows and longhorn steers, miniature donkeys, oodles of dogs, deer and squirrels.  I'm following the progress of an old house being taken down carefully.  My favorite is the small table full of produce.  I stop about once a week for a $5 bouquet of zinnias or some zucchini.  I love the hand printed price list and the lidded coffee mug where money goes.  I met the husband once.  Passing by I've seen his wife arranging the table.  They are elderly.  I'm humbled by their hard work and their presumption of my honesty.

I grow zinnias and vegetables at my own house.  I don't turn in for the flowers or the food as much as the poignancy of the transaction with people whose names I don't even know.  They tend the earth and share the county in the simplest way, a little table with a little sign.  I am nourished, body and spirit every time I pass by.

I am left dreaming what sort of stand we might post in the church front yard?  If only the fruit of our life together could be displayed for passing traffic in want of peace, community, and grace.  But that is not our model.  We carry our goods along with us, like the lady who brought eggs to our house when I was a little girl.  Our everyday lives are the table in which neighbors, coworkers and friends see grace form which they are fed with kindness.

Wherever the day takes you, as a giver or receiver of God's good gifts, be generous and be well.