What is Real? By Rev. Ken Gibson
In my daily devotional book that I use I am always amazed at how in there a story or a poem or something is able to speak to me so very often even though I have used this resource for many years now. Just this week, (week of Feb 28- March 6) as I am doing research for our texts and eventual sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, I came across a reading from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. I am sure many of you recall reading this book or having it read to you by a parent or grandparent, but I do not recall such a thing happening in my life as a youth. However, with all that we have going on at Grace right now I find it speaking to me in so many ways. I am including this section of that book for us all to consider. Happy reading!
The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by and by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.
“What is REAL?” asked the [Velveteen] Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things inside you and a stick-out-handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,’ said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time,{I would add however long that love time is granted}, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
May we all come to understand. Amen
Pastor Ken
Tim Hedlin
Church Administrator
Ron Fredriksen
Director of Music Ministry
Linda Mindrum
Preschool Director
Gretchen Hutchens
Director of Education Ministries
Shirley Busse
Senior Activities Coordinator
Shirley can be contacted through the church office
at 815-338-0554
Deb Fuller
Director of Senior High Youth Ministries
Jay Fuller
Director of Senior High Youth Ministries
Denise Klabunde
Secretary
Ken Zank
Building Supervisor
Ken can be contacted through the church office
at 815-338-0554
Janice Burns
Organist
