7 years old- Altar Server

This image in my mind is vivid and is a constant reminder of my love of serving my Dad. When I finally was "Big" enough to serve at the altar my Dad fitted me with the smallest acolyte gown or cassock available. The only problem was the cassock draped down around my ankles with about a foot to spare. With the experience of a Father who had 5 children he said, "Here we'll take care of that!" and he proceeded to grab a belt from the altar server closet and put it around me and the looped the cassock up and over so I had a great place to put my hands at a funeral on a cold day, but only if it had slits cut into it. Anyway, I was good to go for many years even until I was 16 years old. Because I was only 4' 11 inches when I began driving and constantly got pulled over in my beat up Volkswagen not for wearing a red cassock but because I could barely see over the steering wheel. My license even had a restriction on it reading: Pillow!

In my prime I had grown to about 5' 9" which now after 5 children of my own and soon to be 4 grand children, my measured me last night for a Reader's cassock and I stood 5' 7 1/2" on my tip toes. So, I thought yes Dad is certainly smiling at this sight because he knows it is not how tall you stand but how far you have aspired on the "Ladder of Divine Ascent."  In my heart I know it is not the being tonsured a reader and gaining a position in the Orthodox Christian Church but deep down my desire to climb in my heart to be closer to God and become One with Him. This is in purpose by serving the One True God, in His original Church knowing the gates of hell will never prevail against it and growing in knowledge and experience of not just the God given word but the truly inspired lives of those who have gone on before us. Love ya Dad!