They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendor. – Isaiah 61:3b

Sunday was one of those slightly damp, cloudy, wintery late October days that are refreshing and invigorating and invitational and enthusiastically declare, “Hey, let’s go take a walk in the park!”

Enough of our trees have started to turn that we are getting a definite sense of what I like to call “fallishness” around here. Tarboro, especially in the historic district where we live, is all about the trees and many of them are massive and old.

So we walked our favorite street, Saint Patrick, and on into and beyond the Town Common. To be more accurate, Rebekah and I sauntered through the neighborhood. I had my Apple Watch on but it refused to give me credit for actual exercise because my heart-rate did not go up enough to count!

But sauntering with Rebekah is absolutely my idea of a good time. We enjoyed the Town Common, we talked about the beauty of worship with our church family in the morning, we talked about our world-traveling family in Poland (Andrew, Alicia and Mr. T. took a trip from Krakow to Vienna for the weekend), we talked about our daughter Naomi’s Orlando crew, and we sat on the steps of “the house that is to be”.

It is just good to be together, it is good to hang out together, it is good to do life together. And here’s the thing: “The Thing” is that worship Sunday morning, nurturing our relationship with God and being immersed in a vibrant faith community, lays the groundwork for everything else that is wonderful.

Simply put, without Sunday morning in church, Saturday afternoon on the Town Common would not have been so great.

Words to think about; words to live into – DEREK