Kyle Dresback

Friends, 

It feels appropriate to be reflecting on today’s passage while under a starry night sky at the Saint Philip’s family retreat at Chapel Rock:

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 

Maybe James wasn’t sitting at a nighttime campfire when he penned this reflection about the God who fathered the stars and also gives lavishly to us, his children. But now that I’m sitting here, I can’t imagine it occurred to him in any other way. 

Much of our discussion over the weekend centered on the challenges and hardships of parenting. Some shared about grief and loss. And in it we worshiped together, we prayed the liturgy, and our kids took turns telling “scary” stories as they burned marshmallows to a crisp and huddled around the fire for warmth. 

Even as we face our own challenges, uncertainties, and disappointments, we are confronted with a God who keeps giving, even at great cost to himself; one who knows our sorrows and is acquainted with grief.

Nowhere is this more poignant than in the eucharist we shared together, being reminded yet again of a God who insists on giving: “Take. Eat. This is my body given for you.”

With those twinkling heavenly lights above and the sounds of kids laughing in the firelight down here below, I’m filled with gratitude for the Father of all those lights who gives so generously. 

In Christ,

—Kyle