Children of God

From Intern Beth…

As we enter into this new year, it’s hard for me to believe that my year spent here is halfway over. These past six months have been filled with such great learning, new friends, and memories that shape my ministry. I want to say a huge thank you to you all for your warm welcome, hospitality, and love as I’ve stepped into your church family to continue learning. Thank you for the feedback you’ve given me to guide in growing into God’s call for me. Thank you for all the encouragement, I definitely feel God’s love at work in the church. Thank you for all the gifts that surrounded me throughout the Christmas season; from the ornaments that covered my tree to the family Christmas cards to the little pieces of your families that you shared with me, I continue to feel so welcomed and embraced by your St. Paul family.

As I reflect on the past six months spent in the community here, while I’ve branched out to experience some traditions and festivals here in Indiana, some of my favorite traditions have been those shared here in the church. While I was growing up in church, my home congregation had a bigger youth program and involvement. But over the past few years many of the youth have aged out of those programs and as I’ve moved around attending new churches on my journey, not many of them have had much youth involvement. This past Christmas Eve to be able to sit back with my family and enjoy the youth program brought me so much joy. Seeing youth from seniors in high school all the way down to preschoolers all gathered together to share in the Christmas story reminded me of the passion and call I’ve felt into ministry.

Throughout my ministry experiences up to this point, I’ve held close to me 1 Timothy 4:12 where Paul writes to Timothy and us, “let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” As a younger person going into ministry alongside many second career candidates, I’ve had to remind myself that my experience and voice and call is just as faithful as others. On Christmas Eve, listening to the youth tell the Christmas story, hearing them share their musical talents, and seeing them all gather to live our God’s call for us all reminded me that our youth is not something to be looked down upon. We are all children of God and called by God to lead and shape and share the story of the church. So as we begin this new calendar year, what ever you hope this next year brings for you, let us all embrace being children of God and approach the year with the childlike wonder that we experienced in seeing our youth share the Christmas story.