Spending a good deal of the summer with my friend Rose means spending a good deal of time at garage sales! On one of our early morning outings, I was intrigued with a small rubber stamp buried under books in the bottom of a cardboard box. It bore the image of a sailboat and the words: “Ships are safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are made for.”
I thought a lot about those words later in the month as I watched boat owners scramble to moor their boats in the harbor because of an impending storm, and again, as I sat in a small wooden church, huddled with other parishioners as the storm whipped around the 150 year old structure.
At that moment the church was our safe harbor, a port in the storm, but when the pastor said, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord,” it was a reminder that we were meant to go into the world to be Christ to others, not stay at home in the harbor where it is safe.
Still, it is comforting to know that when our spiritual supplies are low, when we need “repairs” or a place of calm and rest, we can find, through the parish, sustenance in the reception of Eucharist, God’s Grace in the sacraments and a family of believers ready to welcome us home before we begin our journey again.
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