September 6 – “Old friends and watery namesakes”

I had quite the surprise yesterday when I went to the donut shop to get a few dozen of the goodies for church.  as I waited for my order to be brought out, I heard a voice behind me saying, “They’ll let anybody into this place.”  Recognized it right away, but it was certainly out of place.  Sure enough, I turned around and there stood our friends Wayne and Sheri with a few of their grandkids.  I encouraged her to go out to our car to see Chris, so Sheri walked out, mask covering half her face, and stood by Chris’ window, arms raised like some kind of bear.  Pretty funny sight.  Even funnier?  Chris never looked up from her phone.  I banged on the hood and got her attention.  She looked up at me, but still didn’t notice the stranger at her window.  I finally pointed that direction, and the surprise was complete.  Always great to see old friends.

 

At church we began the service, and I was met with surprise number two of the morning.  Who should walk through the door but Larry and Nancy, some more old friends we haven’t seen in maybe thirty years.  They had spent the weekend on the Island and wanted to worship someplace before heading home.  We had a chance to catch up with them over some good food at Nate’s.  Always great to see old friends.

Wait.  Didn’t I just say that? 

 

Speaking of church, we had 50+ people in attendance.  And just about all of them joined us down at the beach for Brennan’s baptism.  The group we were hosting in the retreat center joined us for worship and at the beach.  How could they resist?  It was a group of what looked like junior high students.  They hit the water as soon as they could.  Interesting tidbit about them … they thought it was cool that their church – Lakeside – was worshipping with Seaside.  A couple of watery namesakes. 

 

John 6:35 says, “Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.’”

 

Father, thank you for old friends.  Thank you for the youngsters who joined us.  And thanks for Brennan and his decision to follow you in baptism.  Bless his life with you.  Amen.