4/14/2025
Blessing and Benediction from Rev. Ivan Herman
by Rev. Ivan Herman
You prefer vanilla
because you always know what you’re going to get.
They call it plain ol’ vanilla. Basic vanilla. Boring vanilla.
Comforting, yet exotic.
How can a hand-pollenated orchid produce a bean pod that tastes like childhood?
Vanilla potentiates flavors, augmenting their sweet and floral qualities.
Chocolate, cherry, and banana-rama-doodle-mallow all taste more like themselves because
Vanilla.
I think God is like vanilla.
Hear me out. I know there are many flavors.
God, comforting yet loves you too much to leave you alone to your troubles.
God, exotic and challenging you toward justice and compassion for those unloved and overlooked.
God potentiates and makes us more of who we truly are.
Now we only see in a dim reflection, but with God we see face to face. Now we know only in part, but then we will know completely. (1 Cor. 13:12)
Your relationship with the Divine leads you to your true self and who you are intended to be.
Rev. Ivan Herman
Rev. Ivan Herman has served as the associate pastor at Carmichael Presbyterian Church since 2009 and is active in the Presbytery of North Central California. He grew up in Ecuador and Colombia, and has previously served as pastor or ruling elder in Presbyterian congregations in Memphis, TN, Washington, DC, and San Antonio, TX. He holds an annual pass to U.S. National Parks as well as degrees from American University, Wesley Theological Seminary, and Wake Forest University. Ivan lives in Sacramento with his spouse, Susan. They keep a well-stocked fridge for their two teenagers, but the ice cream never even makes it to the freezer.
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