Monday Meander November 9, 2008 What’s your favorite children’s game? Nothing beats hide and seek in my book. A couple of times a year I play hide and seek on Google to see where our story pops up in the new public square of the internet. Today when I searched on “Readfield United Methodist Church” I found two treasures hiding in the back yard jungle of ads. Both are trips down memory lane. The first is a reminder of a “God incident” with a visitor in worship several years ago. I had forgotten completely about it. http://carolyncholland.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/it%e2%80%99s-not-that-small-a-world/. The second describes one of our former Sunday school students becoming a teacher in her new faith family. http://peoplesumcnews.blogspot.com/2008/03/welcome-our-newest-members.html The way we tell God’s story resonates beyond us in ways we never expect. Glimpses like these remind us of what others see when we’re not looking…and of the larger story of God in which we’re privileged to play a part. Thanks be to God! Like these glimpses, overhearing provides tidbits of a larger story. Our community, like our country is in a time of extraordinary transition right now. The speeches made by Senators Obama and McCain on Nov. 4 will go down in history. Each of us will remember where we were and what we were hearing. Since then, I’ve overheard conversations ranging from exuberance to fear: hope for things that may come to be, fear of the unknown. Both wait for a future coming into being, much like the kingdom of God, a kingdom that we can be confident is larger than anything we know. A kingdom that is hidden and yet closer than we suspect. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13: 11-12 KEEP IN TOUCH: On the calendar this week: Monday@ 7PM Trustees, Tuesday @6 PM Finance and 7PM Administrative Council. Please keep these groups in prayer as they meet for work and worship, and feel free to visit if you’d like a glimpse. Thursday @ 7PM Music Makers, Saturday 9:30 AM-3 PM Order of St. Luke mini-retreat @ Torsey Church, Saturday 10AM Church Fair Crafts. Let us keep in prayer * Those who are frightened- by the economy, by change, by their own potential, or by the immensity of the unknown. *Our veterans and all who have served their country, often giving in ways hidden to others. *Those who find it difficult to ask for help. *Our health care system and its ability to meet the needs of the most vulnerable in our communities, insured and uninsured. *Churches prayerfully considering their futures, those voting to close or downsize staffs and those ready to step out in faith.