Happy New Year! Actually, it seems a bit odd to be sharing a Happy New Year greeting when the month of January is nearly half over. On the other hand, it was just a couple of days ago that I was able to catch up on emails that had come in the week before Christmas. And if I stop and think about it, much of December seemed a blur, nearly spinning out of control.
That’s why Mr. Pat and I decided to disappear for a while once he finished his radiation treatments. We left on Saturday, December 30 and flew back on Saturday, January 6. We celebrated New Year’s Eve and the rest of that week in Ocean Park, Washington, on the Long Beach Peninsula. It was good to get away. To do something different. Reconnect. De-stress. Have fun. Experience and enjoy life. What, from this excursion, will we remember? Walks along the beach. The resort’s resident bald eagle. Hiking in Cape Disappointment State Park. The lighthouse. Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center … that we didn’t get to explore. Fort Columbia that we explored instead. Clam chowder. Oysters. Build-your-own pizza that surpassed Godfather’s original. And cranberry lemonade. Now that we’re home, and Epiphany has come and gone, we’ve been taking down the Christmas decorations and putting them back in storage. I guess we are ready to put 2017 behind us and start this new year after all! If Jesus’ baptism signaled the beginning of his public ministry, might the reaffirming of our baptism signal something new in our own lives and ministries? What might the new things be that God is doing? Loving God, thank you for naming and claiming us as your own beloved children. And thank you that we are not alone as we step into this new year. Bless our ministries as we discern the new things you have imagined us doing. Amen. Grace and peace … --Pastor Pat
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Pastor
|