Pastor’s Keyboard

This year I spent Thanksgiving with my family at my sister and brother in law’s house.  It was really nice to get to spend time with my family. Though they all live only two hours away I find that I rarely get away to see them, so this Thanksgiving was a great blessing. My sister and brother in law have three boys and a little girl, ranging in age from 1 ½ to 14.  My sister has been very blessed to have the choice to be a stay at home mom while the children go through their schooling, obviously this is a rare opportunity for most moms today.  Yet listening to my sister and brother in law talk about all the activities she’s involved in at their school and parish I don’t think you could call Taryn a stay at home mom.  She is at the boys’ school more than some of the substitute teachers.  Yet with all this she has even made time to become an artist, her paintings and pictures can be found all over the house, and I thought they were done by professionals.  The reason I make mention of this is that it hit me that even though her life seems to be filled with activities surrounding the lives of her children and husband, and school, and other family members, she has made time for something that helps her to express creativity and beauty.

It made me start to think about how I spend my few hours of leisure, especially as I approach a very filled Advent and Christmas season.  There are a number of saints that were also great artist and musicians.  In art, they found another way to glorify God and express their creative side which was given by our Good Lord. My parents and my grandparents and I are not much into the arts, we don’t even take good pictures, but then it hit me, “when have we ever taken the time to even try”?  The Advent and Christmas seasons are a perfect season to bring out the creative side of us all. Whether, it comes to making home made decorations, decorating the house, or making home made presents.  This is also something that families can do to enter more fully into the advent season.  We may not all have natural talent as my sister somehow has, but we can learn and grow, and isn’t that we God made us to do?  To learn and grow spiritually, intellectually, and physically.  We may not be able to run or jump as we once did, but we can most likely still paint, and mold, and draw, and knit something beautiful for God and for others.  Let us Begin!

Your Father and Brother in Christ,
Father Scott