“Give Thanks for the Past

What gift can we bring,

what present, what token?

What words can convey it,

the joy of this day?

When grateful we come,

remembering, rejoicing,

what song can we offer

in honor and praise?

Jan Braund is one of our oldest living members – she and Laverne Van Bergan are just a day or two apart in that regard – and her memories are precious. For she, like so many others of her generation who worship here, she is our link to the past, one which allows us to look back to a time when folks very much like us gathered in this same space and place for prayer and for praise, for study and for service, for lessons and for learning, folks from whom we have gained so much insight and knowledge, faith and fortitude, persons who received from the generations who went before them the same gifts which we receive and which we bestow on others.

Give thanks for the past,

for those who had vision,

who planted and watered

so dreams could come true.

Jane Marshall’s second stanza is pertinent to those of us who live here in Wayne County, who are residents of the bustling city of Wooster that lies in the midst of fields and furrows and forests that surround us. Those who had vision – who saw what others could not see, who dreamed about things that others could not imagine – these forebears planted seeds of faith and love, and then watered and tended and cared for these seeds, and the plants that sprang forth from them, so that we might reap the fruits of their faith and the harvests of their hope.

As we continue in this Stewardship season, and consider how we might make our Estimates of Giving for 2017 in order that ministry might be achieved here at Wooster United Methodist Church and mission might be assessed and assigned, as we continue in our thoughts about Stewardship, I invite you to join me in giving thanks for the past. And may our appreciation for those who have gone before us, some of whom are still among us, may our appreciation be issued in generosity and thanksgiving and praise.