November 03, 2011
Peace and Safety
Many years ago one of the ladies in our congregation was in a long-time
abusive marriage. While she is faithful in attendance, her ex-husband will only
occasionally come to church. I’m always amazed to see them attending the same
service, but sitting in different areas. Although they avoid close contact with
one another, the reality is that they are coming together in worship, singing
praises and partaking in the communion emblems. I think I see shades of the Messianic
age, “The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling
together; and a little child will lead them.” (Isa 11:6 NIV)
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----It’s a beautiful thing. Hardly describable. About all you can do is sit back and watch in wonder and hope you’ve given the Lord enough substance from which He can make you that real, too. It isn’t that they’ve found something more important in coming to church than they have in holding stuff against each other. If that were all they had, there are enough churches in the area they could each attend and never be in each other’s proximity again. So what they’ve found is evidently more than that. I wouldn’t think it was an attachment to the familiarity of a church facility that brings them both there. I don’t think your church has been in its facility long enough for that kind of deep rooted attachment to happen. If I might venture a guess, it would be attachment to the people who worship together there. And that is what the Lord wants of church, attachment and relationship with each other.
-----And if I might hope for more, whether it be ever expressed between the two of them or not, I would hope for attitudes and thoughts and feelings of forgiveness towards each other mixing around in mental states of forbearance. The Lord can see that kind of stuff in the heart, and it is the real beauty He paints into humanity. We only get to see such paintings first hand in our own hearts. Of others, we just see actions and behaviors and hear attitudes. We can’t see the inner pictures firsthand; we are left to surmise them. I would like to think something touches each of them to be in the same facility within a moment of good will, even if it isn’t enough to draw conversation from them. Maybe there’s hope for that in one or the other. There is in me. Honest love eventually grows over problems. It would be a picture of beauty if there were yet a small bit of attachment given space in their hearts to grow amongst some forbearance and forgiveness.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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