a wonderful gift

A long time ago, Bob, a man in our church, came up to me. He had this gleam in his eye.

"I'm working on something for you. I'm going to give it to you for my birthday." He had this giggle in his voice. While I pondered the backward nature of his giving me a gift for his birthday, he walked away.

Several months passed. I forgot about the whole thing.

And then Bob's birthday came. He walked up to me before our Sunday morning worship gathering with a long velvet pouch. He smiled and handed it to me. "I told you I was working on it," he said with a smile.

I opened the pouch to find a beautiful walking stick, made of a branch of twisted willow. He smoothed and prepared the wood to a glossy shine, then carved a small map of the Holy Land during the life and ministry of Jesus into the side.

I like to think of it as a shepherd's stick. I keep it around as I preach and minister to people, as a reminder that God has entrusted to me the care of these people, and those whom He will bring us.

Bob and myself (I'm the white guy) with the stick

a closer view of the map (the writing on the white area is John 3:16, a verse from the Bible, written here in Hebrew)

myself, Tom (a member of our church and a dear friend), and the stick