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A Few Words from Pastor Bryan
Well here I am with my daughter Emma's 4 boys last Saturday at the hockey rink just before I got on the road to drive back home from their place in Massachusetts. The smallest one in the front is 5 year old Jack, then 8 year old Alex with the hair in his face. 11 year old Patrick with the hood, and 9 year old Bryan. Patrick explained to me that people often ask him if Bryan is his sister, and that he'd prefer they ask if he's his sibling to be more inclusive with the pronouns. Sign of the times...
I wish I had all kinds of funny and meaningful stories to tell about the visit, but I don't really from this one. Their big Christmas gifts from their parents were personal gaming stations for each of them. A desk, big monitor, fancy chair, head phones, and hook-ups to play interactive video games with each other and with people all over the place online. So that's what they did pretty much non-stop. They'd look up periodically and say, "So glad you're here Grandpa!," and now and then they'd show me something about the game which of course I didn't understand at all. Emma kept telling them to turn off the games and pay attention to Grandpa, but I told her not to worry about it. It actually gave me more time to talk with Emma who was off of work for the week. That was delightful. Time with her always feeds my soul.
I did have one heart to heart with Jack about the fact that we share a birthday and how that's a special bond between us. That ended with him saying, "Grandpa! You know what?" "What Jack?" "Grandpa your neck skin is so wiggly!" Good thing he told me. I might not have noticed otherwise.
On my last day I got to drive Patrick to the hockey rink in my car. He's in 6th grade. I asked if there were romances happening and if that interested him. He said, "I'm kind of interested, but I can't take all that on." "What do you mean?," I said. He said, "I'm broke Grandpa. Girls cost money. What am I gonna do with 'em? I mean even going to Starbucks costs like $40.00. I don't have a job and I can't ask my parents for that kind of money." I conceded that he had a point, and by then we were at the rink.
So nothing all that special happened, except that I got to see my daughter and her family living life. Doing what they do. I got to hug them each at least a few times, tell them all how proud I am of them, and that I love them.
And it was perfect.
I'm well aware that there are so many who did not get to see family at all over the holidays, and many family members who are estranged. There are those who have lost family members in recent years and who would have given anything just to be in the same room with them. So I was and am grateful. The simple blessing of being able to lay eyes on a loved one should never be taken for granted, and my heart goes out to those of who were not able to do that this year.
And I'm aware also that sometimes the simplest things are also the most sacred. I don't really believe in the whole notion of "quality time." I believe in simply being together. No need to try to cram some kind of special memory into a short visit. It's all special. The mundane and the magic are all wrapped up together. You can't make the magic happen. You can just hope to be there when it does.
I do think someone should come up with a t-shirt for grandparents though that says something like,
"I visited my grandkids. They got presents. I got sick."
Which I did. Rough week for me. Hopefully I'll be well enough to make it to church this Sunday. It's Epiphany...one of my favorite days of the church calendar year. The insecure political leader willing to do anything to hold on to power, the holy family as refugees running for their lives. Almost sounds like the evening news. And yet there is a Light that always leads to the Christ among us. Then and now. Let's follow it together.
See you soon,
Pastor B
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