The Tail End of Winter

Somewhere I read that the tail end of winter is like an old dog chewing on an old bone.  Certainly calls up images and feelings that late winter can.  How long will it last?  Isn't this the same old thing again?  Ready for something new?  Yes, especially the latter.  I'm ready for a long taste of Spring.  May the lengthening days provide us with the blessing of sun-filled days and starry nights, with the touch of green that is barely perceptible at the edge of the new life.  May the flowers begin to push through the earth in our garden boxes. The tail end of winter seems to take too long.  Nothing new about that.  I arrive there each year.  Well, I am there again.  May the Most High bless your days.

WS

Frost and the Dew Drop World

The sun was just barely topping the horizon. Its slanted rays shining through the bare branches, through the frost on the window, produced a pattern in crystal and shadow which I wanted to capture. But it was not to be done. The sun came on up and the pattern disappeared like morning mist. And some folks say that's the way the world is. The world is like a drop of dew, gracing a flower petal, shining a moment, then gone forever.

The movement of sun and star, planets and time, cannot be stayed by our hands. So much of life is like my pattern of ice and shadow, shining and darkness, quickly vanishing.

But some things do not change. Think about the love of God. It is everlasting. It is without limit. The infinite love of God is given to you and me in Jesus. It will take away our sin. It will lighten our heavy burden...and it will carry us across the river, into the promised land. Friends, when some patterns change and vanish, think about that. 

Light in the Lord.

Willard Spencer

My Young Associate Pastor

I had a new associate Pastor. It happened without the knowledge of the Staff Parish Committee. The Bishop had not been approached. Sometimes events just occur in the course of destiny – or, as Christians prefer, in the unfolding of God’s will. But, without too much theologizing about it let me tell you the story.

One Sunday morning I looked behind me to see him robed and following me in the chancel area. There was a cross about his neck. We checked the pulpit mike, the lectern mike, and also paused before the altar – to pray and check the candles too. Then he accompanied me down to the sanctuary floor and we greeted people and shook some hands. Then, as quickly as he had appeared he "flew" off into the direction of my study where his grandmother was waiting for him.

Well, you know now. It was my (then) four year old grandson, Dylan, who had on his blanket robe – tied around his neck, flowing over his shoulders and draped down his back. He had his Taize cross hung around his neck, and for a few moments I had a new associate Pastor. It was one of those blessed moments, quickly forgotten by swift moving children – or maybe remembered in a small corner of the mind, a time of two people moving in holy space together, linked by blood kinship and by the blood of Christ that unites all of us. I know that it always linger in my mind. 
Light and Warmth,
Willard Spencer

Swings and Boys

I sat in the shade and watched it go…up and down, up and down.

What a lot of energy to go nowhere! But it was great to see the wind push the hair back, eyes squinted in the sunshine, and smiles…broad and full. One of the sheer joys of life is swinging in the park. I remember the boys took turns in the swings and I cherished the moments. How long does childhood last? Swinging time gives way quickly to more productive, necessary or rewarding enterprises. An empty swing is a lonely sight. So I pushed them all..to get started, and then they had to pull their own weight against gravity of earth and time. (A lesson worth pondering.) Still finding joy in the simple pleasure…time and space suspended at the upward peak of the arc…they played in sunlit splendor, defying the cruelty of age and entropy. Heads tilted back, toes pointed Heavenward, swing on, little ones, while we remember and yearn for a freedom beyond earth's bondage, a freedom we only glimpse through eyes of faith, a perfect liberty, rejoicing the soul, childlike, pure.

Light and Warmth,
Willard Spencer
Friends, Here is a memory caught forever in words.  I'm sure you have similar ones.  Many blessings on your day. ws