What words are the right ones?

Unspeakable tragedy!  How to hope and help?

In the days following last Friday's horror in Newtown, lots of people have had their say, and will continue to say and do many things--some helpful, some not.  Here at Church of the Covenant we struggled with what to say on our public face, the roadsign on Military Road seen by many people on their daily commute around north Arlington.  We considered some things, including NOT changing the sign which had previously noted the times of the Christmas Eve worship for next Monday.  But later, it was considered more compassionate to write something that would declare hope, rather than despair, grace and truth, rather than viciousness and falsehood.  We decided to turn to scripture, with words that many hear this time of year, and be reminded of the infinite God of Grace. It might mean more than we can imagine.

Seasonal interpretations of the Trinity

In the Stephen Ministers' meeting from last week at Covenant, the group reflected on the presentation by Robert Kellerman, attended by most of the group.  They discussed how Christian care-giving reflects the Trinitarian nature of God.  In another example of mysterious inter-connectedness, Charles Olsen of the Alban Institute lends another refractive point of view for this inexplicable, but infinitely mysterious doctrine.

Hands-On Jesus

On the Sunday that the church was decorated for Christmas, someone unwrapped the pieces for the crèche that usually gets set up in the library/lounge, underneath the bookshelf. When all the pieces were unwrapped, it was discovered that Baby Jesus was missing a hand!  A careful search through all the wrapping disclosed the tiny ceramic "hand" piece that had broken off Baby Jesus while he sat in storage during the intervening year. Avoiding a tragedy, the thoughtful father of the family who was helping out offered to fix everything by taking home Baby Jesus and his broken hand and glue them back together.  The picture here attests to his success!  We are a "all hands" church.  Just about everything we do together--in mission, in worship, in fellowship--is because someone volunteers to put the hand back on Jesus.  It's often been said that the church is the hands and feet of Jesus.  We make it so!  Thanks for all in the church, here at Covenant and around the world, who put the hand back on Jesus.