Pastor Casey’s Blog

I Hate Goodbyes…

The last few weeks a mother killdeer (a bird) has been sitting on a few eggs in a nest just outside the office doors, waiting…

On Monday this week, one of the eggs hatched, on Tuesday the remaining three hatched.

We were so excited to see a little flock of birds running around the church courtyard area. How cool would it be to have a church mascot?

Well, maybe its not really the same thing, but the birds quickly became part of the church family. One Wednesday, the birds already looked like little

Grown up birds, they were running around and by Wednesday evening, were flying in little amounts. These birds are less than 2 days old and flying!

Thursday morning came, and the nest is empty and no birds are in site.

This got me thinking, so I did a little research (you can research Killdeer, or anything else for yourself at our Prodégé website at http://www.vssm.prodege.com)

While the birds grow up so fast, I am reminded of our 6th grade class also growing up.

2 weeks ago, we took the 6th graders on a weekend retreat to Salt Lake City and Lagoon Theme Park to celebrate graduating from the children’s department and to welcome them into the youth group with Pastor Tyler and Carrie Lynn.

These 6th graders were just graduating kindergarten when I began my internship at Valley Shepherd Nazarene.

I have seen them quickly grow and mature over the last 6 years similar to how I saw the killdeer quickly grow in a few days.

In the same way that the birds are too old and big to all be in their nest, our 6th graders have reached the time in their life when they are too old and big to be in the children’s department. While it is hard to say goodbye, I know that great things are in store as they enter into the youth group.

I look forward to seeing how God continues to work in their lives as they grow and mature.

Keep an eye on our kids and teens. They grow up so fast!