A Few Hours of Fellowship over Lunch

Today I got to go to lunch with our pastor's wife, Kit. I'd been anticipating doing so for some weeks, and the opportunity just now presented itself, delayed in part because of her appendectomy and winter ills. It seems like church time isn't enough to talk with her and get to know her like I wanted to. We went to Collector's Choice, a restaurant I hadn't been to in about 7 years, I think...it was fun driving out there and seeing various sights that brought back this or that random memory from when we used to attend a church in the area. She took me by way of backroads and I learned various avenues that I hadn't seen before, connecting streets with which I was acquainted; it was a beautiful drive, with the snowy mountain peaks looming tall in the background against a beautiful, cold, sunny winter sky. I learned a shortcut to our favorite trailhead for the Centennial trail, the Machias stop (or conversely, learned what a "long-cut" we'd been taking all along otherwise). It snuck up on me and I was surprised to recognize where we came out to familiar territory.
While we ate our lunches and drank our tea, we got to reminiscing various things that women will, about life, marriage, hardships, children, parents...and found that though the specifics in our lives were entirely different, we had much in common. I suppose that would be true of most of us, if we got talking long enough!
We poked around in an antiques mall for a while afterward, and then we went back by another backroad--I think I was entirely lost by that time--and talked much more. She shared so many ways that they have related to the people of the church, especially being "grandparents" to the children there, since many of them, like ours, rarely see any of their own. Tim calls her "Grandma Kit" as do the other kids at church, and it feels a little weird to me, since she's maybe 10 years older than I am. Maybe "Auntie" Kit! But he delights in the feeling of a relationship there, too, often pondering aloud the things he loves about church, and it's things like using this nickname of hers that make him feel a part of it.
Anyway, I was able to share with her how much we delight in their approachability, how Sunday is a happily anticipated day for our family. To have gone out to lunch with the pastor's wife, and feel her friendship. I went home rejoicing in the fellowship we shared, the faith that unites us. God is great, is He not?