Thoughts After Walking Among Giants: The Presbytery grants me the right to two weeks of study leave each year and the obligation to report back to the Session upon my return. Our Session meets on Tuesday and I will share some reflections from my recent trip to California with them. It was a worthwhile use of time. Following the close of the pastors conference, I spent a few days with friends and family, and God continued to speak. This is the written portion of my report to the Session:

I spent the last full day of my recent study leave in California with my mother, sister and brother-in-law under the giant sequoias of Calaveras County (famous for Mark Twain's jumping frog). My sister lives not far from Big Trees State Park and so we wound our way past Angels Camp, climbing into the deep forests that mark the beginning of the high country. Snow still blanketed the ground in the shadows cast by the redwoods, and the dogwoods that grow beneath them had not yet blossomed. Fallen giants litter the ground of the North Grove, some the victims of long-ago fires, others having felt the lumberman's axe and saw 150 years ago. But there are many more living trees, some a football field high and over 30 feet wide at their base. The oldest of the trees were saplings when David felled Goliath 3,000 years ago.

The trees are amazing, perfectly adapted by their Designer to survive long mountain winters and the droughts that periodically plague the west. Virtually all of the oldest and tallest trees have been hit by lightning; most bear black scars, but the bark which can be two feet thick on the largest trees protects them from all but the most intense flames. Large burls along the trunks attest to attempted sabotage by insects, but the trees have learned to withstand all such attacks.

Unlike the giant sequoia that can outlive three millennia, the years of mortal human beings are, according the Scriptures, threescore and ten, perhaps a little more by reason of strength (Psalm 90:10). But God has given us a gift the forest giants do not have: "He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man's mind…" (Ecclesiastes 3:11). And the eternity of which we are allowed to dream he has made a possibility through the gift of his beloved son. This is the gospel we declare.

Like the ancient sequoia with its burls and fire scars, the stories of our lives contain their chapters of testing and hardship. The oldest and wisest among us also tell stories of the power of faith and of God's faithfulness to those whom he has called (Romans 8:28).

There are giants among those called to be members of the community of faith at Park Presbyterian Church. Like the towering sentinels of Calaveras County, they bear testimony to long years, but also to the power of faith to sustain life in a difficult world. As we continue the process of planning for the future of our congregation, we will be wise not only to look ahead and to be sensitive to the needs and the mood of the younger generation to whom we are charged to bring the gospel, but to also look to those who lives are marked by burl and fire scar.

This month Missy and I will be meeting with the Confirmation Class in preparation for their examination by you on May 30. 8-10 saplings who need to know the secret of spiritual survival in a hard world (Philippians 4:13). Keep us in your prayers.

To my Session report I only add that it was a joy to walk among the giants of Calaveras County and it is always a joy to live among the giants of Park Presbyterian Church.