Dear Edwards Church Community,
Fall is a gift. Of course, all of life and nature are too, but fall in New England is truly a gift. Residents of the valley know this, surrounded as we are by daily reminders in the color of the leaves, the taste of cider and pumpkin bread, and the rare afternoons when the air is just a little crisp, but not yet so cold we think twice before going out.
For me, fall is a recurring pleasant reminder of walks in the state parks on or near the Appalachian Trail, a short ride from my family home in western Maryland. Closer to home here in Northampton, a walk on the trails up Mt. Tom, Sugarloaf or any other climb is not only an invigorating walk in nature; it is also, for me, an invitation to recall Saturdays in the fall as a much younger boy.
My father would gather all the children old enough to walk in the woods (and that was an elastic standard, depending on my mother’s rest requirements). We’d head off on Saturday morning, leaving Mom and the youngest children at home, and go hike. We’d stay out on the trails until Dad’s patience was all used up or young appetites demanded a meal. My parents had other goals at the time, but I know those walks are where my pleasure from walking in the woods was born.
Years later, when the McSherry children were ages 10-30, we took a family picture on the rocks beside a popular waterfall in the Catoctin Mountains. It remains a family favorite for capturing an era: Mom and Dad still middle aged, only one of their children married, and no grandkids. Fall colors were scattered on the rocks. Half the leaves of the surrounding trees had fallen; half were still above.
We are in a different time and place today. Marian and Jim are gone. Never forgotten, their influence and memory live on in us, including their 30 grandchildren.
“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” (1 Cor. 3:6-7) As a newly minted grandparent, I get to re-experience the wonder of new life and the rapid changes in a baby. As he grows, he will discover new things all the time and evolve. He will also become familiar with and even acculturated to his family’s norms, and discover comfort in routines. They will feel natural to him, unquestioned.
As healthy teenagers and young adults, many of us go through a process of differentiating from our family. We find out that who we are is not exactly the same as our family of origin. That process can involve a sense of wonder and growing appreciation. It can also involve tension and resistance, especially when parents or other family members experience the younger members’ growth and change as a rejection of family norms. Maybe you’ve been on at least one side of that experience. I know I have.
In the life of a church, like the life of a family, tension can occur when growth requires change. We can have different experiences and opinions regarding the need for changes or how they are implemented. But if we keep our focus on what we have in common – the life and love that are already present and shared, the commitment to continuity as well as new growth – it can make all the difference. As we celebrate the seasons, observing the changes that occur in the cycle of life, let us remember that what binds us to each other is more lasting than the leaves of one season.
Blessings,
Michael