Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Not long ago, on a crazy day, when I had a string of 13 meetings, something monumental happened.

But first, I had a great meeting with a new member, a pastoral care catch up with clergy, a meeting about creating a series of focus groups regarding campus improvements, a meeting concerning the process for funding those potential developments, a meeting about pilgrimages, a chat with folks working on a video about the history of our buildings and grounds, a pastoral conversation with someone suffering, a chat with a potential outreach partner about a new housing program, a call with folks from our Church Pension Group about possible changes to benefits in the future, a call with a donor interested in refugee ministry, a visit with a vestry member — then we had our vestry meeting that night.

As good as many of those things were, they were not the monumental thing that happened though.

I discovered that during the day, our youngest had decided he could build a LEGO kit by himself! He’s never had the concentration to do that — to follow the directions and make sense of the connection between the blocks and the pictures of the blocks. Following step by step has been a challenge.

But, for whatever reason, it clicked with him. He built three LEGO kits by himself. A helicopter, a little roller coaster, and a small bulldozer. These were little monuments to years of small successes and many, many stumbles along the way. This was monumental!

All of that is to say, when we’re busy, new miracles are happening all around us. Whether we see it or not, some new hope is always taking shape beyond our sight. In the midst of the hurried rush, some slow promise is finding its way to the surface of life.

I’m not sure if he’d have done it if I were hovering there, watching and coaching and waiting. But while my day unfolded, this new thing was unfolding for him. As things came together in my day, new skills and awareness came together in his.

Our lives are a web of interconnected hopes — we are one small fragment of a great cloud of witnesses. We witness, together, the miraculous and mundane alike, and are called to see in it all God’s great hope laid bare for all the world to see. And for that we can only give thanks.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert