Becky Says...

March 2005

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Happy Easter! - March 27

An Easter long past. The setting is the west yard of the courthouse in my hometown.

With Daddy on my first Easter    With Mama on my first Easter

That courthouse is in the town square. Also in the square is a gazebo in the south yard, and some monuments honoring war dead in the east yard. I used to love playing in that square. More pictures another day.

Remembered - March 26

Thirty-eight years ago today was Easter Day 1967. And it was my Confirmation and First Communion. Those two things arrived simultaneously for Lutherans back in those days. Now, taking a cue from the past, Communion is not tied with being an adult member of the Church.

Confirmation almost didn't happen for me. Don't get me wrong; it wasn't that I didn't want it. No, it was that I am absolutely no good at memorizing words. I'm particularly no good at memorizing words that are lists and lists that are readily available. The words in question were all of the above: the list of names of the books of the Bible.

For some reason most likely because we were moving pretty well through the course material and there was a need to fill some time, the pastor decided during the fall session of Confirmation classes that we should memorize the list. I tried. I really did try. But I couldn't do it, so I told my mother that since I couldn't do this thing that seemed to be a new requirement, I would just have to forgo Confirmation.

My mother was not upset with me over this. She knew me, and knew it was not something I was giving up without having struggled. She didn't force me to go talk with the pastor about it, and it didn't occur to me to do so, either, because everyone else in the class had fulfilled the assignment and moved on to the next thing.

The pastor assumed I had decided I didn't want to be Confirmed. He felt that was a personal decision, and made no attempt to interfere. I didn't bring it up with him, he didn't bring it up with me.

But one afternoon a couple of months later he was talking with my mother about something entirely different, and the subject came up. He asked why I had suddenly decided to drop the class, and she told him.

His response to her was to apologize. He said it never dawned on him that some children weren't good at memorizing things, and that not knowing a list of things should never be a barrier to belonging. He went on to tell her that if I still wanted to be Confirmed, all I needed to do was read the rest of the textbook and come back to class for the final tests.

I, of course, was delighted to do exactly that. And I came away from it with a lot more respect for the pastor, for having the courage it took to say he had made a mistake and he was sorry.

Looking back, I should really have talked with him about it when it became apparent to me that I wasn't going to be able to do the memorizing. I should have known that this pastor, who told us the first year of classes that it was more important to know what we were professing to believe than to have committed the Creed to memory, would also likely think it more important to have a Bible close at hand in which to find the books instead of having a list of them memorized.

For the record, I still don't have that list committed to memory. But I can tell you exactly where my Bible is. I can also recall that Easter Day and the rest of Catechism Classes rather well. In fact, I had a chance to see that pastor a few years ago, and we wandered down that particular memory lane together. It meant a lot to both of us.

Text and photographs © copyright 2000-2005 Becky