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Beavers
Many websites say beavers use their tails to pack down mud, as does this article (“Aquatic Engineers,” December 2024). Quite a few say this is a misconception. I have never seen a beaver do this, and I’ve seen quite a few at work. I see them using their front paws to do the packing.
Curt Gesch // Quick, B.C.
Joy
I stumbled on Daniel Denk’s May 2023 article on joy (“Jesus Came to Bring Joy”) and so appreciated your publishing it. It’s been a rougher year of pastoring than some, and it helped to clear the fog and get me ready for this season. It was personally encouraging as well.
Pete Baker // Bakersfield, Calif.
Being Right
I feel moved to comment on Brandon Haan’s welcome article, “When Being Right Is Wrong” (December 2024). Given the ongoing conversations on the hot topics of the day, I am afraid that all too many of us may read Haan and nod our heads in approval. “Yes,” we might think to ourselves, “he certainly is right about those other guys. Glad that my side is so much better than that.” The almost outright vitriol I see in so many articles around homosexuality is expressed on both sides, and I pray that all might be able to live with more orthopraxy. Yes, orthodoxy matters. It matters a whole lot, but not at the expense of failing to live out our faith in love, even to those with whom we disagree.
Helen Laack // Rochester, Minn.
Synod 2024
The article “Pastors, Churches Leave CRCNA Following Synod’s Ruling on Traditional Sexual Ethic” (November 2024) makes me very sad. So many Christian Reformed Church members are hurting right now, and I will pray for the denomination as you deal with the grief. … Doesn’t the denomination believe that the Holy Spirit speaks through the collective voice of synod? Then how do some claim that it is a “Spirit-led discernment” telling them to contradict synod? God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, right? So how can the Spirit tell synod one thing and then tell individual churches something different? That does not make sense to me.
James Doyle // Miami, Fla.
What an irony in the Christian Reformed Church! Synod makes a decision about who is welcome and who is not welcome in the CRC (“Synod 2022 Upholds Traditional Stance on Same-sex Relationships” July/August 2022; “Synod 2024 Declared Disciplinary Measures for Those ‘In Protest’” July/August 2024). And then we see “All Are Welcome,” #269 in the Lift Up Your Hearts hymnal. To quote in part the first line: “Let us build a house where love can dwell and all can safely live.” And the last line, in part: “Let us build a house where all are named, their songs and visions heard and loved and treasured.” When will we learn to stop confining God’s grace in a box? When will we learn that God’s love, grace, mercy, and redemption extend far beyond the narrowness of our minds, … that God opens up his arms to all people? When will we learn to actually mean the words of the hymns we sing? Are all welcome? Do not sing it if you do not mean it.
Gordon Terpstra // Bellingham, Wash.