When Your Friend Hands You a Tissue

When your friend hands you a tissue, you may want to wonder why.

When you take the tissue, even though your nose is not running, you follow your friend to meet the surprise that is your parents who have flown from sunny Arizona to frigid North Dakota.

When you hug your parents and take your tissue and your seat, you are even more surprised when your community has conspired to recognize a 15-year milestone as their pastor.

When you have been people’s pastor for 15 years, you have not stopped to look all the way back at the privilege of these relationships.

When you do look back, you are thankful your friend gave you a tissue.

• Thank you, Audrey, for contacting my parents, for working with an artist to design a stunning pectoral cross, and for the tissue.
• Thank you, Council Member and especially Jean.
• Thank you, sneaky staff members for creating an underground card receptacle. I had no idea you were so sneaky! I am very afraid.
• Thank you, parents, for trading your lighter jackets for your winter jackets for a few days.
• Thank you, St. John community. I am so humbled as I read your gracious cards. I open only a few at a time, until my eyes are too blurry to read the words.