I had the privilege of having coffee with everyone's favorite pastor at Bear Creek UMC this morning...Rev. David Orendorff! And by everyone's favorite, I mean especially mine!
David and his family have been super supportive of my ministry and family. And personally, he's been a great mentor. An example of his support happened this morning. I texted him before our coffee date and warned him that he might not want me to meet him this morning because our water was turned off last night due to a leak in a pipe. "Just a warning, Dave, I might not smell that great!'
David replied by offering his shower to the whole family! I wonder if he asked Vickie about that!
Near the end of our coffee, Dave and I have a ritual in which we share (or brag) about our grandchildren. We both look forward to this and so I was prepared with a great story about Emerson. I shared that she was writing her first book report on an animal. Cassie, her mom, asked us to guess what the animal was. I guessed Meerkat (Emerson's favorite) and Cyndy guessed Otter (her Woodland Park Zoo favorite). "No!" Cassie smiled, "I don't think you'll get it. It's particularly rare!" At that I gave up, but Cyndy pondered for a bit and then said, "Well when I was in first grade, I wrote a report on the duck-billed platypus! That's pretty rare! Is it a platypus?"
Cassie's eyes went wide and she almost fainted. It was the platypus! How could that be, right?
Dave laughed at that story and then pulled out his phone and started sharing about his oldest granddaughter's gift for writing. He then started reading one of her poems. It was a beautiful "I am" poem. As Dave shared it, we both had tears in our eyes. It was so profound and beautiful! And as our eyes met, both of our eyes were twinkling. How we could be so blessed to have such wise and witty grandchildren! David and I have got "grampapa-itis" really bad! And I don't think we're alone!
That incident reminds me of a World Religion Class I took in seminary. At the beginning of the semester, the professor, Dr. McFarland, sat in the middle of our classroom, pulled out his wallet, and proceeded to show us picture after picture of his new granddaughter! Immediately his face went into full-out grandpa mode. I mean he was beaming from ear to ear! He could not stop telling us how cute she was!
He then proceeded to tell us that even if his granddaughter looked like a donkey, he would still think she was the most beautiful girl in the world. That's just what grandparents do. We can't help it. We dote on our grands. In our eyes they are the most beautiful grands in the world! And then he transformed back to our professor, looked us in the eye, and said, "in much the same way, this is the way most people talk about their own religions. Their religion is the window, for them, to the mystery of God and to the meaning of life. And if you find a way to see and experience God through one particular window, you become convinced that your window, just like your grandchild, is the most beautiful window in the world. And you are going to try to get everyone to see and experience what you saw by looking through that same window! And therein lies our problem. Every religion thinks theirs is the best!
"Our task, then, in this class, is not to prove that ours is the best, but instead to see if we can learn to survive on a planet with people who see things differently than we do. To understand that what they see and how they see is not wrong, but just different. And maybe by doing that, we will not only understand each other better, but hopefully begin to understand God in new and exciting ways.
That class became one of my favorites. It didn't make me fall out of love with Christianity, but instead helped me better understand what I believed and appreciate the way others who were different that I was, saw this mystery we call God.
I love my grand! I just know she is the best! But I also love to hear Dave O. share about his grands. And as he shares, I share in his joy! Can't we learn to do the same when we encounter people who see God differently than we do?
Your friend and pastor, waiting patiently for Dave to send me a copy of that poem. It won't be as good as Em's book report, but I have a feeling he won't agree. And that is just as it should be... Brook
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