January 2026

Happy New Year everyone!

Welcome to another turn of the page into a new year.  Calendar moments like these mark the times of changes of seasons, rotations of the earth, location of the moon, and remind us that change is a normal part of life.

What a huge change happens in a family and a community when a baby is born.  A new life, great wonder, new expectations, new delights, new baby clothes and toys! Ta-Da! But also a new sleep cycle, new expenses, new home safety plans, new grocery shopping.  Oh no! When the gospel of John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we remember that love and the mundane comes with caring for a living breathing creature that needs to be sustained and kept safe!  Never mind the added burden of being Divine!  Being Mary and Joseph must have been an otherworldly experience.   The birth of a child puts thoughts of the future before us like no other experience.

With the start of a new year we are offered the chance to look at the world with different eyes, with expectation in our hearts, through new lenses, much like the colors of these windows.  

As we enter 2026, my wish for us is that we look at others through lenses of kindness, caring, abundant joy, justice, and peace.  I wish for us to come to new definitions of what really matters.  Slow down. Offer gentleness.  Breathe. Follow God's path and delight in God's wonderful plans.

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Blessings, Pastor Deb

February 2026

Welcome to February!

Did you know that the month of February “began life as an afterthought? For two whole months each year, time didn’t officially exist in ancient Rome.

The earliest Roman calendar, created around 753 BCE only counted ten months. It began in March and ended in December, leaving nearly sixty winter days floating unrecorded. This early system was more agricultural than astronomical, designed to track the growing season rather than the full solar year. Decades later January and February were added (to the end of the year) creating the twelve-month structure we still use today. Eventually Julius Caesar moved the beginning of the year to January, placing February in its current place as our second month.

God gave us the sun and the moon and sent them spinning and set our lives into rhythm. Since the beginning of time, literally, humans have been trying to control it – corral it, stop it, extend it, pause it, understand it. Using land and sky, looking for patterns to live by, patterns to hunt and gather by, patterns for waking and sleeping, patterns for work and play, etc.

The Church is no different. We set ourselves into patterns for worship by day, by week and by year. The cycles bring us comfort and assurances of God’s presence through repetition, warmth, consistency and promise. We find ourselves in February, moving toward the time of wondering exactly what it means for Christ himself, and for us, to be together. Why did God come? Who is Christ? What might it have been like to live as Christ lived, knowing that he will die to his humanity but rise to his divinity for our sakes. We have a great deal on our calendar this month, so I hope you take note and feel welcome!

Blessings, Pastor Deb

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