I appreciate the opportunity to share some thoughts on my gratitude for what Emmanuel Church has been for me.

Shortly before her death in 1995, the American poet Jane Kenyon wrote a poem entitled “Otherwise”. Very ill at the time and keenly aware of her imminent passing, Kenyon names with gratitude the simple pleasures of her day, concluding each gratitude with the phrase “it might be otherwise”, until the short poem concludes with “one day, I know it will be otherwise”.

If you have lived long enough, and I am 72, you may know much about the “otherwise” and can feel the gift of gratitude for many things that are. I am especially grateful to Emmanuel Church for supporting me through my cancer treatment, for sustaining me while a family member was in deep peril and crisis over a period of years, and for always being there for me with openness, acceptance, and unconditional love.

As I write these words, I am in Cincinnati visiting our daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter. When I picked our granddaughter up from daycare the other day, she came running down the walkway, her smile wide and her arms open, saying “Hi, Grampa!” as I took her up in my arms. My granddaughter expressed perfectly for me how Emmanuel Church greets everyone, no questions asked. I am so very grateful for that greeting and hope you will join me in supporting this amazing church.

–John Coldren, 11/3/21