The Barefoot Pastor & His Bucket of Rocks

He's tall, long-legged and barefoot most of the time. In church he wears shoes, I think. It was his Children's Time presentation that stuck with me.

He folded his long legs to sit on the floor with the kids and dumped out a pail of rocks. The big one was the "God" rock. The smaller rocks all had names representing the different aspects of a person's life: work, play, family, friends, etc. He put the small rocks in first and the big "God" rock last. It didn't fit. It fell off. He dumped the pail out and started over showing them how to put the "God" rock in first then all the others rocks fit. "Life works best when we put God first," he said.

Here at St. Mark's Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau, Interim Pastor Peter Rupprecht has his bare feet firmly planted in a working faith. I'm so glad he walked barefoot past our campsite and invited me to church.

copyright 2005 Red Convertible Travel Series