Well today is my last sermon for quite awhile. I wrote this poem as my last poem and it deals with Paul's "Then we shall know as we are known". How we may not understand what or why we are doing what we are doing but God knows


 Understanding Now and Then
*
I came to the church, for what reason?
       Did I come just for a season?
Is an Interim pastor just like a bridge loan?
       Is that the reason the church hasn't grown?

Well, now that we are about to leave
        It is true that we will grieve
And wish that today was just a bend
        In the road, and not the end?

But for what would I want to be remembered,
        Not for the puppets that's for sure
Nor for the songs and the singing
        And not for the doctrine that's pure

Not for the stories that I told you
        (Most of them were quite real)
Not even as a preacher that loved you
        Who preached sermons you could feel.

BUT what I hope you will say to each other
        When in the future you recall
Say, "He truly loved his Jesus
        And tried to give Him his all.

"He wants to see us in Heaven
        When this life's journey is through
By putting our faith in Jesus alone
        We know that we'll be there too."

And when I think of you 
        This is what I will pray,
"Dear God, Bless and keep them all
        Until that final day

"When we shall be together
        Before His royal throne
Then we shall surely know
        All thing just as now we're known."


*


Pastor Van, June 7, 1997