June 17, 2024
“But you, my Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy; you are very patient and full of faithful love.”~ Psalm 86:15 CEB
Dear St. Paul’s Family.
A while back I was talking with Elaine, my best friend from childhood, She reminded me of our attempts one summer to build a tree house in the crab apple tree in my backyard. We went to work near my basement door, close to my dad’s tool bench. We used the base of an old wooden clothes hamper for the base, and scrap wood for the sides. Put them all together with my dad’s hammer and nails and painted it with left over paint in one of the cans in my basement, using one of dad’s precious paint brushes.
Dad blessed our work with one of his subtle smiles, and the question, “How’s it going, girls?” In our opinion the construction process was going very well. Once the paint was done, we carried it down the hill to the crab apple tree. It was only then that we noticed a minor problem. We knew where we wanted to put it in the tree but had no way of lifting the “house” through all the branches to its perfect position in the tree.
You are probably way ahead of us when I reported that we carried it down the hill. We’d not thought through the fact that while it might be a good idea to design the tree house on terra firma, it was not a good idea to build it there.
We decided to take a break to get a cold drink, and dad asked, “How’s it going?” We explained the problem, and he asked, “what can you do about it?” Good question. We decided to take it apart and rebuild it in the tree. We did, and he came to admire our fine work, with a reminder to put the tools away where we found them. There were no recriminations, no making fun of our effort, just his quiet man-of-few-words comments along the way.
Elaine commented on how patient and kind and supportive my father was. He could have told us we were making a mistake, taken over the project, scolded us for making a mess. Instead, in his quiet way of being present, he gave us a chance to have fun, learn, and take pride in the finished product.
Giving thanks for a father who modeled compassion, mercy, patience and faithful love.
Miss you! ~ Anne
Wayfinding 