Upon waking this Christmas morning, the thought of attending church entered my mind. I can't help myself though it's been years since I've walked through such doors on my own accord.
What can I say?
It is in my DNA. The son of a minister. The son of a minister's son. The grandson of a minister. The nephew of many more ministers. Administers of ministers we could be, my cousins and I. Ministers by association, nearly. Only these relatives can relate to such an absurd relationship with pastors, as they are called where we come from.
Conditioned I have been. Minnesotan born and bred. Land of 10,000 lakes and hundreds of thousands of Lutherans.
Garrison Keillor's voice ushered us, adolescents, deep into the Northern Woods every weekend of summer. At 16, we boys and girls drove automobiles into the forest together on our own accord. Mine a blue 1994, Honda, 4 door, 4 seater. Prairie Home Companions we were. My friends and I, growing up on the shores of a Lake Wobegon.
How do I even know such a fictional place exists? Because it was in fact, not a story after all. The Lake was real as real can be. What did our parents think we were up to? Playing cards and swimming in our bathing suits. Watching movies.
We were all good Christian kids "don't ya know.” Living life by the book. Leaving the lees at the bottom of the cup. Our tan bodies soaked up every last drop of sunshine, that The Lake could offer.
Today when I rose, the slightest temptation remained to shower and put on my Sunday best, but then subsided to thoughts of The Lake.
I never felt close to god in a church. The only Jesus I ever met was a guy I spent a summer with laying bricks. The only treasure I ever found in such walls, is knowing that there's no treasure to be found in them at all.
Of course, treasures abound all around us. However, it takes one with eyes wide open to see and capture them the moment they flash across our view.
This Christmas morning, I came across the wife of a minister. She was walking her dog on the beach before she had to be at church. "What will you be doing on this beautiful morning?" she asked.
I wonder if she found anything inside those walls, that was not already out amongst the waves.