In Other News...
Area Pastor's Silly Menagerie of Toy Animals
Stolen A Second Time
Yes, the little collection of toy animals that was outside our church is now gone, apparently for good. A family that occasionally attends our church had a family reunion at our facility on Saturday. We like to make our building available for people in the community. Sunday morning when I arrived before dawn, the headlights of my car shone upon an empty rock.
The last time this collection disappeared, I found them in the building. This time they were nowhere to be found. Perhaps some child attending the family reunion took them home to love them and play with them. That's what children often do when they find toys laying around outside.
And after all, isn't that what toys are for?
I found that I wasn't the least bit sad about it. They appeared mysteriously, and I still have no idea how they got there. And now they have disappeared just as mysteriously. Really, wouldn't life be dreary if you didn't have a little mystery now and again?
And what kind of a church would we be if we didn't notice and love the little mysteries of life along with the big ones?
Laity Lodge
I'm heading to the "hill country," as the area north of San Antonio is called, for a retreat at Laity Lodge. Laity Lodge is a wonderful place, and the big news is that the featured speaker is none other than one of my personal heros, Frederick Dale Bruner. Bruner wrote a two-volume commentary on the gospel of Matthew that I adore. It is the only commentary that has brought me to tears. Yes, it's that good. I'm thrilled that Eerdmans has brought it back into print.
Dale Bruner is one of three or four people that I am trying to meet and thank sometime in my life. His writing has meant so much to me that I want to thank him in person. Next on my list, Annie Dillard and Anne Lamott. I'm less confident that I will meet either of them, but a guy can wish, right?
Anyway, I'll be gone until the weekend. No email, no real live preacher, no mobile phone. Just me, pen and paper, prayer, reading, and conversations with new friends.
See you when I return.
rlp
1:03:57 PM 
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