It was fifty years ago this past weekend when I first became a pastor. My wife and I left the seminary in late August and went off for our new adventure. Everything we owned was in a 5 by 7 foot U-Haul trailer as we rolled out of Michigan on our way to Iowa. I can’t tell you how excited I was that first Sabbath morning. I can’t tell you how puzzled those church members were to try and understand why the conference would send them a child to be their pastor. They loved us and bragged that they trained us. They did. They taught me more than I ever learned at the seminary.
Most of them are gone now and when I see them in heaven they will have to reintroduce themselves to me because so many of them were old when I first met them and in heaven they will be young again. Perhaps we will all have to reintroduce ourselves to each other because Paul says in I Corinthians 15, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: . . .” We are going to look so good. Move over George Clooney. You ain’t seen nothin yet.
I had one ninety-year-old guy who wore a Band-Aid on his forehead to keep his eyelid up. If he didn’t it just fell closed. I so want to see him in his prime. We have so much to look forward to. Once we understand and catch a glimpse of our future we just cannot let it go. We would be so foolish.
Written by Roger Bothwell on Sept. 8, 2014
Spring of Life, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org