April 24, 2020
The Second Friday of Easter

Dear Ones,

This past Sunday was a tough one for me. In addition to all the things we’re all worried about all the time right now, I woke up pretty anxious about being “the tech guy” for worship. I decided to go to the church building for the live-streaming instead of doing it from home, hoping I would be able to concentrate better in my office. I hadn’t slept well the night before and the coffee hadn’t really kicked in yet. You know the kind of morning I mean—we’ve all had them!

As I was walking the few steps from the street to my office, still feeling fuzzy-brained and anxious, I looked up from my ever-present phone and behold—our beautiful outdoor cross was covered in flowers. I stopped in my tracks as tears filled my eyes. There is a tradition at St. Martin’s that the night before the Second Sunday of Easter “someone” flowers the Cross. It had never occurred to me that it would happen this year. And yet it did.

There were more challenges that morning, including realizing that the link we had sent out for worship wasn’t right. To be honest, there might have been a moment there when I just wanted to turn around and head back to bed. But there were several more moments of grace, too.

The truth was that I wasn’t “the tech guy” at all. I was part of a team. Alex walked me through a couple of last-minute questions and Annie handled her part of the work deftly and without fuss. And many of you stood at the ready to help your virtual neighbors if they ran into difficulty.

So yes, the morning started out rough. But in the end it was lovely and grace-filled. It was, in the words of one of my favorite children’s curricula “enough…and more than enough.”

Flowering the cross is such a beautiful symbol of Easter. It reminds us that death can turn into life, darkness into light, weeping into rejoicing. When I left church on Sunday I took a picture of our beautiful flowered cross and gave a whispered thanks to those who made it possible.

I pray you are finding moments of grace, joy, and beauty in the midst of it all, whatever that “all” is for you right now. May these moments be enough–and maybe even more than enough.

Blessings,
Pamela+

P.S. Click here to see a time-lapse video of the flowering in action!