Five Years

            It popped up on my Facebook page the first thing this morning. “See Your Memories,” it said, and then a post I wrote five years ago about becoming a resident of Summit, New Jersey. Yes, I’ve been living here, serving as Pastor here for five years, which hardly seems possible that it’s already been five years, which is good news if the saying is true that “time flies when you’re having fun.”

            In the post that I wrote five years ago, I mentioned that I could not find my way from the front door to the back door of the house without relying on my GPS, which was a bit of an exaggeration, but also a reminder of how new everything seemed five years ago. Over the course of these past five years, that newness has worn off, and there’s much that is good about that. Now, I feel comfortable here, at home here amidst sights that are now familiar. 

And yet, there is also something that makes me want to cling to a sense of newness, because when places and people are new, we pay more attention. We are open to surprise, around each curve, in each conversation, no matter how brief. We see better. “And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new’” (Revelation 21:5). For that One seems to like newness, and maybe that’s because that One wants us to pay attention to the familiar stuff of our everyday lives; to be open to surprise and wonder; really to see life, the world, the universe surrounding us.

--Pastor Don Steele