CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith From a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter…
 
IT MEANS MORE TO GOD…
 
In my college days, students were allowed to have a car on campus only if needed for work. I pastored three little churches 16 to 35 miles away from Bloomington, so I got to have a car. This meant I also got other things to do, like picking up a couple of students at Depauw U in Greencastle, IN, 45 miles away, to bring them to IU for a student conference. One was a cute girl. I thought she should ride up front with me, but she ensconced herself in the back seat and read all the way. The other was a nice enough guy, a pre-ministerial student like myself. He sat up front, and we talked the whole way about pre-theological studies and where we might go to seminary.
 
That night there was a mixer for the conference, maybe 40 or 50 students. I saw my new friend across the room and went over to say hello to him. I did. He didn’t respond. I said a few other things to which he did not respond, until finally he said, “Who ARE you?” I was considerably taken aback. We had spent an hour talking with each other earlier in the day. Was I that unmemorable? I told him my name. He looked blank. I explained that I was the guy who had given him a ride earlier, and reminded him what we had talked about. He said, “Oh,” and walked away.
 
Later I did what I have always done when perplexed. I consulted an older and wiser head, in this case, D.J. Bowden, my first religion professor. [1] After I had whined to him about the ungrateful and insensitive jerk, Dr. Bowden said, “Apparently the relationship just meant more to you than to him. That’s why you’ll be a good pastor. Relationships mean more to you.”
 
Looking at the universe, the universe doesn’t give a damn about its relationship to me. It just shrugs and walks away. But looking at Jesus, I can see that my relationship with God means more to God than it does to me.
 
That’s the Christmas message, I think, the message that comes in Jesus, the Christ, the Word of God: even if I shrug and walk away, God stays in the relationship. It just means more to God.
 
JRMcF [John Robert McFarland]
 
1] It is getting harder to find heads older than mine now, so I have to ask younger and wiser heads, but I don’t get perplexed as easily, so it sort of evens out.
 
When Father Rode the Mail and Other Stories of Christmas is available from lulu.com for $10. ISBN = 978-1-300-38566-0. For many years I wrote a story to use as a Christmas eve sermon. Most are auto-biographical, but with happier endings. Providing happier endings is the great thing about being a story-teller.
 
I have faithfully kept an index for CIW so that I would not repeat myself. But that’s a lot of work, and I trust that if I forget I’ve already used something, you will forget it, too. Nonetheless, I do apologize if this is a story I’ve told here before.
 
{I also write the fictional “Periwinkle Chronicles” blog. One needs a rather strange sense of humor to enjoy it, but occasionally it is slightly funny. It is at http://periwinklechronicles.blogspot.com/}
 
(If you would prefer to receive either “Christ In Winter” or “Periwinkle Chronicles” via email, just let me know at jmcfarland1721@charter.net, and I’ll put you on the email list.)