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Kimberly P Chastain, Pastor
Did you travel this summer? Did you take Flat Jesus with you if you did? My flat Jesus was playfully decorated as a pink-haired drag Jesus, since I was planning to be on a trip around Scandinavia that would include many fun and delightful encounters.
Pink-haired Jesus went with us to Finland, on boat tours and to the opera and enjoying picnics in various places.
He went with us to the Sibelius museum and enjoyed art exhibits and the beautiful weather in southern Scandinavia. He went with us to visit the Johann Sebastian Bach house, and to Wartburg castle to see where Martin Luther wrote his famous 95 theses.
Our trip ended differently than we expected, when Reinhilde’s 96-year-old father entered hospice and we returned to Goettingen for his journey home. I did not take Flat Jesus with me to visit, nor did I take him to the upper room when we gathered to share the Lord’s Supper with Arndt in his last hours. So imagine my surprise when the pastor who was leading us in the service handed each of us a picture of a flat Jesus at table with the disciples.
In that moment, the silliness and the fun of traveling with flat Jesus came full circle, and gave new meaning to why we had carried the cutout with us. Jesus was with us in our travels; Jesus gathered us in his loving arms as we celebrated communion once more with this beloved elder, and then in kindness and in grace, gathered Arndt Ruprecht to himself and took him home.
Thanks be to God.
Blessings,
Pastor Kimberly
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