Advent Devotions

Today’s author is Prince of Peace’s Intentional Interim, Pr. Steve Sylvester.

I did my seminary internship in 1988/89 at Trinity Lutheran Church in New York City.  A week before landing at LaGuardia airport, I was sitting on a granite slab in the early pre-dawn having a cup of coffee with my favorite camper of all time, Brent Mattson.  It was the end of a three-week trip down the Albany River, up the Pikitigushi River and then, after hopping a train and being dropped off, down the wildly beautiful Kopka River which emptied into Lake Nipigon.  The other boys always slept in, but Brent got up every morning of the trip to drink coffee with me.

In the final week of my internship, I was paid a visit by Betty Howe, a member of TLC I had grown close to.  As a parting gift, she handed me a paddle.  It wasn’t just any paddle.  It was a white ash otter tail paddle with browned and patinaed varnish that looked like it had never been used.  Betty said it dated back to the late 1920s or early 1930s and had “just been hanging up in the rafters” of her grandfather’s garage.  It was beautiful.  Before going on trail that summer I sanded the old varnish off, oiled the shaft and grip with boiled linseed oil and gave the blade five thin coats of Epifanes spar varnish.  Because the blade is narrow side to side and thinner in the midsection than at the tip, it paddles like a live thing, giving the slightest spring back into flat as it’s being lifted out of the water.

After moving back to Minnesota from Texas in 2007, I started shopping for a canoe.  We had been given a gift by the good people of King of Glory for that express purpose.  We settled on a Bell Northwind, an 18’ Kevlar tripping canoe.  It was a very nice canoe.  A year later I saw a wood canvas canoe listed for sale on Craigslist, Old Town Otca.  I learned to paddle in an Old Town Guide, so day after day I returned to the listing and remarked to Jennifer how beautiful it was.  Finally, Jennifer said, “Stephen, sell the Bell and buy the Old Town,” so I did.  It was built in 1925, and it was more than very nice.  It was lovely.  Bright red, mahogany deck plates and outwales, with sitka spruce inwales.  Like my paddle, it felt like a live thing, giving just a bit with each swell.  At 95 pounds it was twice the weight of the Bell, but in spite of its water worthiness and glossy black allure, the Northwind felt more like a high-tech tool than the trusted old friend Big Red has proven to be.

Speaking of trusted old friends, I’ve done a few trips and many miles in Big Red with my friend Bill Blomstrom.  Bill and I have been friends since the early 1990s.  In addition to paddling, I have no idea how many thousand miles we’ve ridden together.  And Bill and Anne are Sam’s Godparents.

I tell you all this because depending on when you read this devotional, I will be about to leave for the north woods, I’ll be on the way, or I’ll actually be on the water.  When we paddle out onto Lake One, I’ll be sitting in Big Red with Bill, feeling my paddle blade spring back as I take it out of the water and then feather it forward for the next stroke.  For a week, these three touchstones—my paddle, Big Red and my trusted old friend—will shape my prayers of adoration to the God of Psalm 104 who is “clothed with honor and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment.”  I hope you have such touchstones, and I hope you will have an opportunity this summer to offer up prayers of adoration to God.