"From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised" - Psalm 113:3 Sunrise photo contributed by Mike Willock 

  Photos contributed by Mike Willock. (Good eye, Mike!)

Mike Willock writes: Last week included, after Halloween (October 31), All Saints Day (November 1) and Dia de los Muertos (November 2). Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a holiday in Mexico when families remember the relatives and friends that have gone before. They make an ofrenda (offering table) with pictures of lost relatives and items of food or other things that their relatives enjoyed in life. The Pixar movie Coco is a wonderful animated tale about a little boy Miguel and his old grandmother Mama Coco. If you haven’t seen it, you should. You can stream it on Disney. This week I have been thinking about the pictures and other items that would go on my ofrenda. I found slides of my paternal grandfather John and grandmother Verna, one with two of her brothers and their wives gathered around the family table with Barbara. I found a remembrance of the Celina, Texas, farmhouse written by my mother in the 1990’s. I found a picture of the old barn that was the subject...

Mike Willock writes: In a recent sermon, Pastor Travis reflected on a mission trip in South Dakota where he and others built housing on an Indian reservation but never was able to meet the residents to talk with them and learn their stories. During the worship service, my mind traveled back to the late 1950’s and my grandfather’s farm in Celina, TX, a small farming community about 40 miles north of Dallas. There were no land acknowledgments then, but I have since learned that present-day Collin County was part of a buffer area shared by the Caddo, Cherokee, Delaware, Kickapoo and Tonkawa tribes. I remember rich, black farming land and rolling grazing land. Today Celina is slowly being absorbed into the sprawling Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. For several summers in my early teens I traveled by train to spend a week with my Celina grandparents. The house was built on a hilltop and last painted in 1900, with a wraparound porch and swing. The porch ceilings were light blue and ther...

Mike Willock writes: In a recent worship service, Pastor Travis challenged us to pay attention. He preached on the story of Moses, who first saw and turned aside from tending his sheep to approach the burning bush out of curiosity and then he met God there. In this modern era, with all the dings and screen prompts and calendar reminders competing for attention, we can easily miss or even dis miss signs of God’s presence in our lives.   I thought back more than 20 years to a Todd Hall workshop led by Rev. Belden Lane. He occasionally sat in the east transept at Second on a Sunday morning. Belden had us spend the hour after lunch looking for signs of God in nature. I found the first one close to the dining hall – a spray of flowers blooming in a decaying tree stump. Wandering farther afield, I only heard, but never saw, a deer moving through the brush a stone’s throw from the road. Two down, one to go, so I kept going farther on. Finally, walking back to the conference center alon...

Mike Willock writes: A recent Luther Seminary devotional highlighted two three-word prayers from the gospel of Matthew. I have added a third found in the Psalms. The first is in Matthew 14 after feeding the 5,000 when Jesus sent the disciples across the Sea of Galilee and went alone up the mountain to pray. Later that night the boat was caught in a storm and Jesus came to them walking on the water. Peter, ever the one to speak first, said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” When Jesus said, “Come”, Peter got out of the boat but soon he became afraid of the wind and waves and began to sink. He cried out “Lord, save me” (Matthew 14:30) and Jesus caught him by the hand and rescued him. That’s one. The second is from the Matthew 15 story of the Canaanite woman who pleaded with Jesus to heal her demon-tormented daughter, crying, “Lord, help me” (Matthew 15:24). Jesus praised her persistent faith and healed her daughter, which marked a turning point in Jesu...

  "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow" - Audrey Hepburn Crape myrtle in full bloom - photo submitted by Mike Willock

Mike Willock writes: Moving from the Maundy Thursday service in Niccolls Hall to the sanctuary where the Stations of the Cross are displayed, I was struck by two contrasting uses of a basin and water for washing. The basin in the Last Supper was used by Jesus, as described in John 13: “Jesus got up from the table and took off his robes. Picking up a linen towel he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a washbasin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he was wearing. … After he washed the disciples’ feet, he put on his robes and returned to his place at the table. … If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other’s feet. I have given you an example: Just as I have done, you must also do. ... I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you must also love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.” The other basin was used by Pon...

With an eye out for signs of beauty and hope, these two photos were taken next to church in the past week. Thank you, Mike Willock. 

A reflection by Mike Willock  Micah 6:8 (NRSV) God has told you, O mortal, what is good,     and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness     and to walk humbly with your God? To begin the Sacred Space for Children part of the worship service on January 29, pastor Travis tried to engage the children with the Micah 6:8 preaching text. He strutted in front of them with his chest puffed out and his head thrown back to contrast a self-absorbed and prideful stride with how we should walk humbly with God. Since then, I’ve been reflecting on that very familiar scripture. There are three action verbs – “do,” “love,” and “walk,” but we usually connect only the last of the three with the words that follow – “with your God.” I think that misses an important point. I think a better reading would be Do justice with your God, and Love kindness with your God, and Walk humbly with your God. When we separate t...

It’s just an old dog dish. Our dogs are long gone. We leave it on the patio as a rain gauge and for birds and squirrels to drink. But this morning the overnight snowfall and the warming day combined for a moment to create a joyful work of art, one that could not be sculpted by human hands. God left us a greeting card this morning. It will soon be gone. Beauty is all around us if we take the time to look. God is good. All the time.  - photo and text by Mike Willock

  (photo and caption by Mike Willock)

  "Our parents in faith are watching" - photo taken by Mike Willock, in the portrait lounge during the Christian Forum meeting prior to the Nov. 6 All Saints Day morning service.

  Photo by Mike Willock

  Photo contributed by Mike Willock

The "Indian summer" rolls on with temperatures in the 60s and 70s and sometimes even the 80s, deep into October. (For now, gardeners have been spared the dreaded the first frost). In that connection, a colleague of mine at school, John Mohrmann, circulated this poem about being grounded. He writes that he choose the poem because of its reference to late summer in the first line, but "I mostly like this poem because it reminds me that when I worry about how I measure up in the 'halls of judgments,' I need to stay connected to my foundation, to 'what I am.' " And make sure you scroll down to see the corresponding beautiful photo shared by Mike Willock  -Tim Woodcock My Rock   Summer’s ending. I sit on my desert rock, listen           to the world’s hum.                    Crows and ravens caw, finches and sparrows chirp. A dog barks.             Can I face   ...

As Maria sang in The Sound of Music , "Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens…" Photo taken outside the front of the church by Mike Willock after the food pantry on Saturday. 

 An offering of beauty to the 2PC parking lot from our next door neighbors (photo by Mike Willock)

Mike Willock writes: Several weeks ago I was sitting in the hospitality room waiting for Barbara to finish a meeting when my eye was caught by the reflection of the window in the glass covering the table. That’s when I took this picture. The top three panes show the view looking through the window. What looks like three more panes at the bottom of the picture are actually the reflection of the window panes on the glass table top. Notice that you can see things in the reflection that are not visible in the direct view. The reflection actually shows what is above the direct view – the intense blue of the sky and more of the tree than can be seen looking directly through the window. That led me to think about our understanding of God. When we look in the faces of those around us and come to understand and appreciate their life journeys and their experiences of God, we learn things about God we cannot know from our own direct experience. That then raises the question: ...

 Mike Willock writes: You might very well ask, “What connection does grace possibly have to do with a flat tire?” Let me explain. Recently, I drove this car to St. Louis Area Foodbank in Maryland Heights to pick up 350 lb of food and bring it to the church. That’s a trip of about 50 miles, including long stretches of I-70 eastbound at 60+ mph in heavy traffic to Kingshighway, Page and Taylor and later I-64 westbound home at noon. The previous day I had driven to Hugh and Pat Neilson’s apartment on 14th St. to share a final communion with Hugh and Pat and their family before they left for Denver, driving another 40+ miles on I-64 and city streets. When I got home on Friday I parked the car in our driveway and went inside. Later that day I found the left front tire flat. That’s when I took this picture. This was not an ordinary flat tire – not a puncture that would deflate the tire over several minutes. This was a valve stem failure. The end of the stem with the infl...