I Believe
Pastor Jake, head pastor of the Blueberry Mountain Community church in the lovely town of Blueberry Springs, is tired. It's been another long week. Too much to do. And too much complaining from parishioners.
This year the trees hung onto their leaves for much longer than normal. In fact, it was as if one day the 12 trees in the church yard simultaneously received the same memo. "Let's drop all our leaves today at 2400 hours." And they did. Yellow, red, green, orange and various color combinations in-between take up every square inch of ground on the church property.
No one has volunteered to rake this year. But many have volunteered to complain.
"The front of the church needs raking."
"It looks disgraceful!"
"Someone should do something!"
Pastor Jake's been so busy, he hasn't had any extra time to rake. Running to the hospital to visit people. Committee meetings. Planning programs. Leading Bible studies. Cleaning the church because the janitor's laid up with a bad knee. Writing sermons. And on and on.
Feeling discouraged, Pastor Jake thinks to himself, "Why should I have to rake the leaves, too? Isn't there someone else who can, who will do it? Why does it always have to be me, Lord?" Not expecting an answer, he didn't receive one.
Pastor Jake shakes his head. He's past tired. He's feeling down. Even his family has noticed. His daughter Freddie was the first one to spot his defeated mood, even though he tried hard to hide it.
"Dad's been sad lately," she says to her mom.
"I know, Honey. Let's remember to pray for him every day."
"Okay," says Freddie. "But there must be something I can do," she thinks to herself.
Freddie's a fixer. She sees something that needs doing and she does it. Like last summer when a stray cat had kittens under their porch. It was Freddie who took care of them. She set up a "Freddie's Free Brownies" stand! In fine print: "For a free brownie you must pray for the kittens to find a good home or must adopt a kitten."
Freddie's known for her brownies. In fact, in Blueberry Springs where news travels faster than a mad hornet whose nest has been disturbed, those brownies were gone in less than 30 minutes. Those four kittens had more prayers sent up for them than many people receive in an entire year. As the last brownie was consumed, the last kitten was adopted.
Freddie's praying for her dad when all of a sudden she knew what to do. She called up her friends. They all brought rakes and paper bags. They spent their Saturday raking all the leaves on church grounds.
Pastor Jake didn't notice at first. He was sitting in his office, trying to put the final touches on this week's sermon. But he was feeling uninspired and also a little sorry for himself. HIs eyebrows were in such a deep frown they threatened to turn into a unibrow. But then he heard laughter. He looked out his window and saw Freddie and her friends raking. Opening his window a little, he could hear Freddie talking to the little brothers and sisters who came along to help.
"You see, these leaves are more than just leaves. The yellow ones are like the gold streets in Heaven. That's where God lives. He loves us. And the red leaves are proof that God loves us. He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins so that we could be forgiven. And the green leaves tell us that once we believe in Jesus, we need to grow in our faith. And growing in faith doesn't just mean going to church and Sunday School. It also means showing our love for others.
"That's what we're doing today, isn't it Miss Freddie?"
"What Nate?"
"We're showing that we love our church by raking these leaves."
"You are so right!" And Freddie smiles. So does her dad as his bad mood lifts and he thanks God for children.
Kathy Yoder is a devotional writer. She may be reached at dkeyoder@longlines.com.
This Pastor Jake story is for Kathy's young friend, Luke.