Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the things I love about my office and our house is how much of what is there were gifts. So many of the items have a story behind them. I’m sure your home is the same. We’re surrounded not by things—art, pictures, decorations— but by stories.

So much of what we curate in our lives is either an attempt to hold on to moments of significance or to hold dear people we loved and who loved us. Where someone might see just another flag decoration we see our grandfather, wearing his uniform, and we remember being at a graveside somewhere when that flag was passed to our grandmother,

These tangible things become an outward and visible sign of deeper meaning and connection. This is the whole life of the Church.

It’s easy to browse the art or architecture of a church building and see stuff that is beautiful. But beneath the works are manifold layers of meaning. A piece of art, say a crucifix, communicates the obvious—the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. But it also communicates something of the power of human creativity in crafting it. It is the manifestation of the faith of the crafter. It’s an expression of the generosity of the giver. It says something of the theology and ethos of the place and community. It says more.

The life of the Church is the interweaving of story after story, life after life, and soul after soul. It’s whole outward and visible beauty is but a glimmer of the deep and abiding exchange between God and humanity. It is built to share the story of God’s love in Christ and to be the site of the rediscovery of that truth again and again.

It is a place where we see bread become more, water cleanse more deeply, and wine carry the full measure of the cost of the Cross throughout all ages.

The incredible thing is that we can, with the eyes of faith, see the whole cosmos through that lens of revelation. Each and every plant, animal, peak, tide, moonrise, and sunset tells a story. They were crafted with holy purpose—God has created an order, a natural storybook, where his story unfolds not only with the rise and fall of mountains and empires but in the rise and fall, the crescendo, of one breath upon another.

The story of humanity is still being told. Those stories are all around us, defining us, and waiting for us to remember them again and again as we search for meaning with the eyes of faith.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert