How wonderful it is to be back! One of the first things I saw this morning was a sign taped to the floor outside my office: "Hug Line Forms Here!" And then I saw a welcome back sign from the Pre-School teachers. So I've been getting hugs on this cold morning!

It is a day of joyous activities: greeting people who are stopping by, doing pre-school chapel (I asked the children, "Have you ever been so sick you had to go to the doctor and get medicine??"), meeting with a young mother who's asking about baptism for her daughter, working with one of our elementary aged kids on a Cub Scout badge, oh -- and digging out of what's accumulated over the past four months. (Actually, that pile is not nearly as high as it would have been, had there not been such effective lay and pastoral leadership while I was sick.)

I have also put out a picture of my Dad that I took in 1974 or 1975 -- when he was about the age I am now. He's sitting in his home office, at the typewriter (symbolic of his life's work as a communicator). He has a cigar in his hand; his messy roll-top desk is in the background; he's working on something. (The church newsletter, which he edited for decades?) It's a good picture for me to look at, to remember him full of vigor and personality.

Today is a day full of blessings.

It is a day to give thanks to God.