As I was growing up, my family camped…all over the United States. We had a station wagon, and eventually a van that pulled our pop up tent camper and we went all over seeing this magnificent country we live in. We often camped with friends of ours who had a matching station wagon and the campers looked identical on the outside as well!
My family can tell stories for hours about those trips. Like the time a skunk walked through our campsite, or the time I went out to get a drink from the Igloo and found a huge raccoon sitting on it. Or there was the year my little sister broke her arm the night before we left. We can tell you about setting up in the rain, cooking potchi pies and s’mores over the fire and piling kids into the cars before dawn so that by breakfast time we were well on our way.
And I remember in the midst of those adventures it was always fun to grab postcards of the places we had seen. I sometimes even sent them to someone! Trying to write as small as I could to get all the information in that one half side of the card. But most of those cards simply came home with me. To be put in a drawer or a box, on my shelf or stuck in a book…until I found them again and then…they were awesome reminders of where I had been and the fun I had on those trips.There are still a few of them around stuck in photo albums and the like. And every time I come across one – it takes me back to that place, that moment in time.
Well, did you know that a large portion of our New Testament is actually “postcards” from the Apostle Paul – who wrote not about the sights he was seeing, but wrote to communities as he traveled, to remind them to keep their sights on Jesus? These postcards from Paul have been saved and still speak to us today…not just reminding us of where Paul was, but also reminding us to keep our sights on Jesus, too.
So, this summer, we’ve decided to take a look again at those postcards…and let ourselves be reminded that 1) the ancient church wasn’t all that different from today’s church, really…and 2) we need to keep our sights and lives turned to Jesus…so how do we do this? Paul has lots of ideas!
In this season of traveling and camping, being at cabins and going from here to there, come join us – either in person on Sundays or online via our website as we take a look at the postcards from Paul! – Pastor Jane Jebsen
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