Yesterday my son and I started a jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle image is of a wolf’s face. We started with the eyes, then the whiskers, and then the nose. After that … it was all hair. All and only hair. All grey-brown straight whisps, and my son and I grew impatient quickly. As I type this, those 300 pieces of hair lie incomplete on our card table. 

We started a puzzle because it was 102 outside. It is hot. All blazing hot, and when my son and I thought about going outside, we also grew impatient quickly.  

In these dog days of summer, it’s easy to feel the monotony and sameness of heat restrictions. I am grateful for worship at Saint John’s to break up that monotony. Things certainly have not been the same week to week. Sunday, you welcomed three families into our church community, and celebrated baptisms, and next week our Intern Raja Banks will preach. On Sunday the 30th we celebrate VBS and another baptism. The Spirit is moving through our gathered community even when the weather outside feels stifling and stagnant. Church-wide Sunday school asks deep questions and forms new relationships while summer book club gathers folks together around the work of talented authors. We may not want to step outside in Austin, so the book club books are taking us all over the world.   

Jerome Berryman, the founder of Godly Play, describes God’s time as circular instead of linear because we believe that Christ makes all things new. Hymn 383 reads, “Christ is alive, and goes before us, to show and share what love can do. This is a day of new beginnings; our God is making all things new.”  

Written for the early church, Colossians 3:10 reads, “You have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator."  

Renewal!  

If you too are feeling the stagnant summer bore, I hope that you find the Spirit’s breath of fresh air through your life in the church. And if we haven’t seen you lately, I hope you will find your way to us in person or online. Maybe coming to church is the missing puzzle piece of your summer. Our God is making all things new. Come and see! 

Grace and peace,