December 29

The church I went to while I was growing up features the most stunningly beautiful stained glass windows. After this morning's service --for which we arrived 15 minutes late, oops-- I wandered around in the empty, darkened sanctuary to look at each one. Abby came with me and identified the Bible story that each represented. A sort of calming silence enveloped my mind as we went from one to the next.

The sky outside was dark with rain clouds so the light that filtered through was especially faint and muted. But the images were still just as lovely as I remembered.

And a related winkish anecdote for you from the morning as well. Since we were so late and since the boys tend to get restless in church, we quietly made our way to the balcony in the very back of the building when we arrived. After a few minutes, I sensed that the natives were becoming restless, so I scanned the pews for the tiny pencils I recalled using as a kid during those seemingly never-ending Sunday morning sermons. And God knew I'd be looking, because I found exactly three of them: one for Abby, one for Isaac and one for Brady. (I figure Logan has an entire box of his own church pencils in Heaven.) I distributed them along with a few offering envelopes and the blank backside of a leaflet, and the result was a very peaceful morning at church. Amen for that.