Saturday, May 14, marked the 44th anniversary of my ordination as a deacon. I almost missed it. We were rather preoccupied at the time, having traveled nearly 150 miles northeast to the town of Sterling, Colorado to officiate at a wedding. We drove there on Friday for the rehearsal and the wedding was mid-afternoon on Saturday. That meant we had some time to kill before things got busy. So what does one do in Sterling, Colorado on a balmy May morning?
There was a pleasant small park next to the hotel, but one lap around the park and its pond took very little time. Some searching on Google maps revealed another, larger park a short drive away and we soon headed there. Though we were just across a street from an industrial area, the park itself was in a lovely residential area. There were lots of cottonwood trees – one of the few trees that can thrive in the high plains desert. Those trees can grow to a fairly substantial size even in that arid climate. When those trees come to the end of their lifespan, they are prone to dropping large branches or even toppling over.
As we perambulated around the park we came across an unusual sight.
What had been a large dying cottonwood had been transformed into a wonderful sculpture by a local artist nearly four decades earlier. The sculpture was titled “Skygrazer.”
Not only was the sculpture a beautiful work of art, but the plaque held a small surprise in its text.
There’s probably several other things to do in Sterling on a Saturday morning, but for us, it was a refreshing moment and a good reminder of what my ordained life is supposed to be about.