Dear Glen Mar,

I was so pleased to lead our first ELC chapel of the new school year, and it was my joy to share with them that God’s book has a name, The Bible and that in it they would learn all about God’s love for them. We learned about creation, from Genesis, and as we went through the days of creation, after each thing God had made, we acted it out. There were arms waving like tree branches and people swimming like fish. After each creation, I would say, and God made the birds, trees, fish, etc. and God said, “It is GOOD!” After the creation of human beings, God said, “It is VERY GOOD!” We pointed to ourselves and said, “I am very good.” We pointed to our neighbors and said “You are very good.” At the end, I had a very sweet four-year-old proclaim that he loved me and wanted to marry me. I assured him that both Jesus and I loved him, and I was already married.

I told you all that because this Sunday we will be giving out Bibles to our third graders. There is no more important thing that we can do than to share the good news of Christ with others. It can be hard to take in an ancient text that was written in a different time and language—a text that is actually more of a whole library than just one book. It can be easy to read it in a way that is not true to the gospel or the context, which is why it’s so important to study in groups…so that we can draw out the Word of God present within the words of the text. I hope you will join us for worship, where we will again break open the gift of Scripture and hear what the Holy Spirit has to say to the church and to us.  I hope you will join us for worship Sunday in person at 9:30 and 11, or online at 9:30. Our contemporary service was well attended last week and it was so great to hear our awesome band and so many voices lifted up in praise!

See you in Church!

Pastor Mandy