Dear SUM Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Some welcome guests came to visit: fellow pastors serving in the New York Annual Conference and their families. We talked about raising children while serving a church, and about ministry across differences of language and culture. Our circumstances varied, but I was grateful to see their continuing love for the church and their prayers for their congregations. I felt hopeful about the ministry ahead of them.
Among our guests was a child who was about fifteen months old. It had been a while since a child that young had visited our home. Those little, toddling steps were so sweet and endearing. Then I began looking around, wondering whether the child might fall or bump into something.
The familiar room, filled with things we used every day, suddenly looked full of hazards. I noticed table corners and items with sharp edges that I usually passed without a thought. I searched for some soft foam, attached it to the table corners, and moved things with sharp edges out of the way.
I remembered when our own children were that small. “Ah, I remember those days.” It felt a little like stepping into a time machine. As our children had grown, I had gradually stopped looking around the house from that point of view. The room was the same, and so were the things in it. Yet welcoming this little guest helped me see what I could attend to and change.
Mark describes Jesus placing a child among his disciples and taking the child in his arms. The disciples had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. Jesus taught them to become servants of all, then told them that welcoming one such child in his name meant welcoming him (Mark 9:33–37).
I sense such warmth in Jesus’ embrace. It helps me consider how closely following him is connected with caring for the person beside us.
The space so comfortable and familiar to me needed another look for the sake of this little guest. Welcoming the child led me to look around our home and put my hands to work.
What might this child have felt, looking at me and the other adults, at the parsonage, the trees and grass in the backyard, and the mountains?
When you and I come to our Joint Worship Service this Sunday at 10 a.m., perhaps we can look around with a child’s fresh eyes. And perhaps we can go a step further, imagining that we are setting foot in a church for the very first time.
Familiar things may begin to look different. Even the order of worship we know well may be unfamiliar to someone attending for the first time. As we look again, I hope we can consider what we might learn and share, and how we can welcome and care for people for whom this church is still unfamiliar. May this Sunday help us discover one small thing we can attend to or change for the sake of someone beside us.
Whether we are visiting this church, wondering whether to share in its life of faith, or have shared our lives and faith here for many years, I pray that we may welcome one another warmly. May the joy of being united in Christ’s love fill our life together. This is my heartfelt prayer in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Grace and peace,
Pastor DH
Simsbury United Methodist Church