From the Pastor's Pen

Dear Friends,

I went Kayaking today on Simonton Lake.  I have been thinking about possibly purchasing a canoe for Mike and me, and a member in the church offered to give Mike and me a Kayaking lesson.  He thought we might prefer Kayaks to a canoe.

I am an old canoer.  I learned the fundamentals at Girl Scout camp as a preteen and then went with the scouts for a week long canoe trip down the Manistee River.  So the Kayak, while more tippy than a canoe, felt quite natural to maneuver. 

What a beautiful day for a paddle in a Kayak!  We put in at the Simonton Lake boat launch which is at a quiet section of the lake and quite shallow.  I thoroughly enjoyed paddling among the lily pads which were in bloom.  I wanted to pick one of the blooms and take it home with me, but I seem to remember picking the lily pad blooms is illegal in Michigan, and I wasn’t sure about Indiana.  The shallows were teeming with waterfowl today.  I paddled as close as I dared to the swans and their young.  There were some large grey birds with them that I could not identify, although I wondered if they were herons.  I also gently chased some Mallards and their ducklings along the lakeshore.  They were not social distancing or wearing masks and I was glad they had no reason to feel unsafe.  😊  Just beyond the lily pads were the most beautiful wildflowers.  There were these big stalks with purple tops and some huge pink blooms (pictured above).  I’d like to know what kind of flower these are as I’ve been seeing them around Elkhart.  Surely one of our readers can identify them.

As I paddled and enjoyed the beauty of God’s world, the words of Jesus came to me.  He was talking about how useless is our tendency to worry.  He said, “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? If then you are not able to do so small a thing as that, why do you worry about the rest?  Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!  (Luke 12: 24 – 29)

It is in quiet moments like these that I am aware of the always present love of God, holding our lives in trustworthy hands.  I am reminded that the world is much bigger than my small view of it and that God’s purposes are more grand that I understand.  I am willing to wait and watch for God in the days ahead.

Peace,

Pr. Sally