Dear SUM Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ.
It’s Thursday morning. I sat down at my desk to write this week’s letter, thinking of you, my SUM family. Today, though, I wanted to write it a little better, so I made myself a cup of tea. I stirred some lemon and honey from the jar into warm water.
You pick ripe lemons, wash them well, slice them, and let them sit in honey. Then you give the lemons and honey time to come together. Of course, you can squeeze a lemon right into warm water and stir in some honey, and that’s delicious, too. But why go to the trouble of putting them in a glass jar and waiting days and days? There’s another flavor that comes with time, isn’t there?
Do you enjoy foods like that, too? I like the taste of fresh ingredients when you cook with them right away or eat them raw. And I do love what time can do to food. Today, over this cup of lemon tea, I wanted to say hello.
Unfortunately, I’m not much of a cook. I follow the recipe exactly, and somehow it still doesn’t taste right. My wife watches me and can’t quite believe it either. She tells me it’s the little things. How you cut things, how you season them, how you adjust the heat. All those little differences add up to a big difference in how it tastes. So my wife usually does the cooking. Sometimes I watch her and I just don’t get it. Why does she do it that way? Why does she do it in that order? Then later I see. Oh, that’s why.
One day my wife suggests we make katsudon. I’m so happy. The kids and I love it. I’m also a little worried. It takes quite a bit of work to get it ready. We go shopping. We buy about as much pork as usual, but that day it looks like more.
My wife checks my schedule and checks the kids’ schedules, finds a time when we can all help, and makes a plan. She gives each of us a job, and off we go. We’d been at it a while when I realized the kids had quietly slipped away. My wife and I finished up and put what we were saving for later into the freezer in portions. When we started frying a few for dinner, there were the kids again. I laughed and teased them a little about how I knew they’d be back. Then we sat around the table, talking and sharing a meal all of us had a hand in.
What we put in the freezer that day came back to our table every so often after that, and it brought us joy.
There’s time in this cup of lemon tea, too. We gave the lemons time to sit in the honey.
What we’re getting ready for together through our Making Room for More stewardship campaign is a whole year of ministry in 2027. That’s why we’re asking you to share now what you plan to give and how you plan to serve next year. When we know where you can give some of your time and what you plan to give financially, we can make more concrete plans for the ministries we’ll continue and the work we can begin.
So we get ready for next year now. And when next year comes, your prayers, your service, and your giving will help us carry out those plans, one thing at a time, over the course of the year.
As we wrap up the campaign, thank you to everyone who has taken part. If you haven’t filled out a pledge card yet, I hope you’ll take a moment to think about the year ahead. Pray about where you’d like to join in and what you can give. I invite you to share those plans on your card.
I look forward, with you, to what God will do through us in 2027.
Grace and peace,
Pastor DH
Simsbury United Methodist Church