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Dear Community,
My mother had a milestone birthday this month and my dad’s birthday is this week. So, on speaker phone, I overheard the server at breakfast ask my dad, “And what is your glorious age?”
I knew I had heard that before when my dear friend Mark Denton reminded me of a question posed at a Brite Ministers' week back in the 90s, during a series of lectures by Maria Harris, a Christian Educator from Columbia University in New York. Dr. Harris was lecturing on the spiritual development of adults, and she began one of her lectures like this:
She said, “In China, when you are introduced to a new person for the first time, the polite, socially expected thing to say is not, ‘How do you do?’ The polite question to ask is, ‘And what is your glorious age?’”
And if you answer the question, “And what is your glorious age?” by saying “I am fifteen," or “I am twenty-seven,” or “I am thirty-two,” then the person to whom you have been introduced shall shake their head gently and say, “That is too bad.”
But if you can answer the question by saying, “My age is forty-nine,” or “My age is sixty-five,” or “My age is eighty-three,” then the person to whom you have been introduced shall smile broadly and exclaim, “What a blessing that must be to you!”
What a gift it is to reframe the world’s standards and place eternal value on the call now on our lives. No matter what age and stage, hear me with your best hearing: What a blessing you are! Reframing is an essential part of our invitation as disciples of Christ.
As a community committed to open hearts, open tables, open minds, open arms, and open Bibles, we are called to see the world through the lens of Christ’s love and grace. This season, let us embrace the opportunity to reframe our perspectives, valuing each moment and each person as a precious gift from God.
Loving you and God more each day. See you Sunday!
Rev. Virzola Law
Senior Minister
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