A Thankful PK

I know that a lot of kids raised in the parsonage struggle not only with life in a fishbowl of sorts but also with the tendency for pastor's families to move frequently.  Although it would be perfectly fine with me to never move again - I was thankful this morning for the life God has given me.

Last night and this morning I finished addressing our Christmas cards for this year (I know, we're behind a bit).  With just a few exceptions we usually only send cards to family and friends from out-of-town because there are just too many here at PazNaz.  But it dawned on me today that I still send cards to people that were part of my folks' churches as far back as 35 years ago in Phoenix, Bethany, Dallas, and Seattle as well as people that have been part of churches where I have served on pastoral staff in Nampa, Sierra Madre, Oklahoma City, and Richardson.  That doesn't even count friends from Christian High School, NNU, Fuller Seminary days, and APU and SNU teaching days.

There are days when I really envy some of our friends and family who have lived in the same community all of their lives.  But today I am really thankful for the great diversity of friendships that have been given to our family as a gift of God and his church.  I'd love to have stayed in one place long enough to build more equity, but I can't put a price on the relationships we have been given.

Thank you to all of you who are and have been such great friends to our family over the years.  I'm sorry we only ordered 150 Christmas cards this year - it truly wasn't enough to include everyone.  Merry Christmas.