Nicole’s e-Pistle

June 4, 2025

Greetings, Friends!

I am writing this message on Tuesday morning, June 3^rd, which happens to by my brother’s birthday. As I was about to call him to wish him a happy birthday, I heard children’s noises outside my office window. Being a kid at heart myself, I was intrigued as to what they were doing. I could hear laughter and muffled exclamations of wonder as they discovered things around the grounds of our church. Was it a day-care group? Was it a family? I could hear leaves rustling. Were they exploring? As I silenced the music coming from my computer and listened more closely, I realized that the noises were coming from the magnolia tree… from inside the tree… from the branches a dozen feet from the ground… the kids were climbing the magnolia tree!

My first thoughts were, sadly, too practical… “Do we allow people to climb our tree? Do I need to ask them not to do that? What if one of them falls?” Then my mind went back to my childhood with my brother, who is four years younger than I am. He and I used to love to climb a cluster of four huge oak trees in our back yard growing up. The tree trunks grew very close together, forming a massive canopy of adventure. One day, I remember my Mom came out back to call us inside, and she couldn’t see us. We were nearly at the top set of branches, which meant we could see the rooftop of our two-story house from where we were perched. I think we took a year or two off her life that day, but we had no notion of falling, because the tree held us strong and steady. We knew well how to get down. We knew which branches were too flimsy to hold our weight and which ones were strongly connected to the main trunk. Granted, at that height, we swayed quite a bit with the breeze, but that only increased the joy.

My attention was then brought back to the laughter coming from our magnolia tree, and I remembered some cold apple juice boxes I bought for my kids (that they haven’t touched in months), so I took them outside to the family. At first, a girl of about nine and her younger brother scurried down from the lower branches and caught up with their baby-sitter who was putting their little sister back in her stroller (she wasn’t allowed to climb with the bigger kids). I said they must be thirsty and wondered if they liked apple juice. They said they did and their mother would be okay with them having it. I gave them the juice boxes and asked if it was a good climbing tree. They relaxed a little and beamed as they said it was an amazing climbing tree… except for the spider webs! I told them I agreed completely and said one of my favorite memories of being a kid was climbing trees with my brother.

I often say how proud I am to be part of a congregation who feels strongly about welcoming the stranger, feeding the hungry, and giving refreshment to the thirsty. Today, as I tried to imagine how you would want me to respond to this “situation” as your pastor, hospitality came in the form of a good climbing tree and some juice for the journey!

Happy birthday, little brother, and blessings and peace to you all!