30 Days of Thanksgiving: Day 14

Today I am thankful for a group of people – or perhaps they are better described as a succession of people: my pastors.

I am thankful for Pastor John Bartos, my childhood pastor, for teaching me both God's holiness and His mercy, and that the fear of God and the love of God could go hand in hand.

I am thankful for Pastor Howard Lawrence, my pastor as a teenager, for teaching me that God has a sense of humor.

I am thankful for Pastor Mark Coleman, my pastor in college, for teaching me the value of Biblical scholarship.

I am thankful for Pastor Bill Boylan, my pastor as a young adult, for teaching me how God uses human history to teach us by example, both positive and negative, and for teaching me to honor and value the generations of Christians who came before me.

I am thankful for Pastor Larry Wimmer, my pastor as a newlywed and new mother, for teaching me that God created and loves the gloomy Eeyores, the neurotic Piglets, and the simple-minded Winnie-the-Poohs of the world.

And I am thankful for my current pastor, Pastor We Chang, for teaching me that caring for people’s physical needs is a way of caring for their spiritual needs, as well.

I am thankful to each of these wise men of God who touched my life through the years. I am thankful for their willingness to take on the difficult job of church leadership. I am thankful for their dedicated scholarship (and their ability to make that scholarship accessible and understandable to their sometimes less scholarly congregations). And I am thankful for the many personal sacrifices they have made in order to care for their flocks.

Three things I am thankful for today are the angelic beauty of the face of a peacefully sleeping baby, the sheer pleasure of hearing a small voice asking for Mama and knowing that’s me, and the touch of my husband’s hand as he shares my delight in both of those things.