Some years ago Diane said, “Dale, we’re old enough now that we don’t have to do what everyone else wants us to do.” I put that into practice some weeks ago when I stopped writing the Minute. The spring semester totally had exhausted me. Nothing bad, just grueling. So I heeded Diane’s advice. “The Sabbath was made for man; not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
Hello, again! Any day you’re alive is blessed, but happily yesterday was both our 46th wedding anniversary and Father’s Day. After church in Collinsville, we drove to Venedy, Illinois, the little country town where Diane and I spent our first seven years. On our way, we drove through New Memphis, Illinois, where St. Peter Lutheran Church, part of a dual parish with St. Salvator Lutheran Church in Venedy. “There’s Skip’s house.” “Oh, that’s new.” “The church looks good,” and similar comments the whole day. St. Salvator was putting on its Father’s Day Chicken Dinner. Special memory there: When we lived in Venedy, Diane suggested the church put on a chicken dinner. They liked the idea – Lutherans liked a new idea? They did; thank you, Lord! – and yesterday marked their 44th annual Chicken Dinner. Names tested our memories but conversations were precious, absolutely precious.
We saw the Scriptures fulfilled, “One generation shall commend your works to another” (Psalm 145:4). The third century church father Origen wrote, “However much obedience we offer (to our parents), we have not yet repaid the recompense of thanks for being born, for being carried, for drawing light, for being nurtured and perhaps educated and trained in honest skills. And perhaps by the same originators (parents), we came to know God and came to the Church of God and heard the word of the divine law.” (“The Fathers of the Church,” 216). We saw that in spades. People active in church because their fathers and mothers had passed to them “the one thing needful” (Luke 10:42).
“We don’t have to do what everyone else wants us to do,” is advice I’m trying to practice, but there are death and taxes. Some of us have our quarterly tax estimates due today; I’ve sent mine in. We wrapped up our visit to St. Salvator by walking through the cemetery. Memories. No need to describe it; you understand. It all made for a special wedding anniversary, a special time of looking back and seeing how good the Lord has been to us. “The Sabbath was made for man.”