Labels Are For Pickles

 

I enjoy the taste of a good pickle and rarely meet one I don’t like.  As a child, I enjoyed going to our cellar for watermelon rind pickles or bread and butter chips.

There’s a certain beauty in row upon row of pickles in glass jars.

While living in an old farmhouse, I once got inspired to try canning pickles. The key word is once. During the process, I dropped a very large jar of pickles and brine. You can imagine the mess!

Labels remind me of another aspect of childhood. You could drive by any church in town and read their label. It might be Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Assemblies of God, Catholic, or a variety of others.  

Have you noticed that church labels today are more generic? I’m sure our town is not unique in the number of non-denominational labels and community church names.

Dad taught by example that labels are for pickles. As a minister, it didn’t matter what town we lived in, he always joined the ministerial association. 

He believed Psalm 133:1: How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity. When I grew up, I came to appreciate his example even more.

As an adult, I was always surprised to hear people say, “When I was growing up, I could only be friends with kids from my own church.”

Dad's advice was, "Friends don’t have to be just from your denomination. You can always find a friend who loves Jesus.”

Thanks to Dad, my life was enriched by a variety of friends. We didn’t always agree on some points of doctrine, but our hearts were knit together in Christian love with God’s Word as our guide for living.

I associate labels and pickles with Dad because he had his favorites. But, lucky for me, when it came to people, he loved them all.