It's been a full weekend, and it's only Saturday. Yesterday was for me, pretty lazy. Emma woke me up at 5:30 with her dancing around the bed, begging to go out. As long as I'm up, I might as well feed her and the cat, otherwise, he'll be whining all morning long. By the time I've done all that, I'm wide awake and might as well stay up, so I head to the back room for my morning workout.
Breakfast and a little reading, then it's time to plow the driveway, put up the cuphooks in the entry room and hang the garlands I promised Linda I'd do the day before, but didn't get to it. Bring in wood for the stove, a short snooze in my chair by the fire, and there wasn't much time left before the kids started arriving for their overnight. Once they get here, it's nonstop till bedtime. This night was special because we took all the grandkids caroling. Our next door neighbors told us that in the 43 years they've been there, we were the first carolers they've ever had! Hot chocolate by the fire, and it was time for bed.
Saturday mornings when the kids sleep over is almost divine chaos. Once they start rising (it comes in shifts, youngest to oldest), things really take off, with cakes and eggs for breakfast, cleanup the dishes, put away all the inflatable beds, and get the house back in order, send the kids home. Today was special, with a presentation at church by a young woman from the congregation who has spent the past year as a missionary in Uganda, followed by bell ringing for the Salvation Army at the Superette and Park church's community hot dog and chili dinner and a visit by Santa for the children.
I am thankful to live in a small village where people know one another, and as financially strapped as folks are, almost everyone drops something in the Salvation Army bucket, where people stop to chat and everyone says "Merry Christmas." All that's well and good, but tonight, I'm thankful most of all to not be feeling under the gun for tomorrow morning. Pastor Joe is preaching, and I get to listen. I know the pressure he is under tonight. He's worked hard through the week, visiting, praying, preparing. No matter how ready he is, tomorrow he will hold in his hands the lifegiving Word of God, always a weighty responsibility, and one I know he takes seriously. I am grateful to be able as a retired pastor to sit under the teaching of a godly young pastor, and to go to bed on a Saturday night without the burden of responsibility that never leaves you as long as you are under the charge of God. I carried that weight for many years, as only those who have done so can fully understand. It is in a sense, a relief to be relieved of that responsibility, but there is one that remains. It is mine perhaps more than most, to pray for our pastor. So I do, grateful for the privilege I had for so many years of doing what he does, and grateful too, to have been allowed the privilege of passing the mantle to another man.
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