Masterpieces
April 2026 - Bruce Fairbairn, Elder
Like the Swallows to Capistrano and the Buzzards to Hinckley, the Turkey Vultures have returned to our Beckett Ridge neighborhood. Each year in March, about 30 vultures arrive for an 8-month sojourn. At night, they roost in several large sycamore trees along the creek near our home. Most mornings, they love to congregate on our neighbors’ roofs to enjoy the sun and warm their feathers for flying.
Up close, these vultures are fairly ugly looking. They look, well, they look like turkeys! But when flying, they transform into magnificent soaring works of art, effortlessly riding the thermals in great loops, gliding high in the sky. We may find what they eat disgusting, but God created them and gave these birds purpose and a good life. Vultures perform very important jobs helping maintain the Good Earth.
People come in all sorts of colors, shapes, sizes and accents. Despite our perceived differences, the
Bible calls us masterpieces, God’s handiwork, workmanship made in His very image and created in
Christ for good works. We learn that God placed us in specific times and locations with sacred purpose, good plans and special gifts, longing for us to rejoin the family.
On Easter Sunday, we celebrated the glorious fulfillment of God’s plans for Salvation set in motion eons ago. Then and now, Christ goes before us and beckons us follow Him. Every month when we gather round the Lord’s Table and pass the communion plates, let us look on one another with renewed vision, love and gratitude—our friends as masterpieces called to the Table and purposed to spread the Good News to the World.
Bruce Fairbairn – Elder
