What If No One Came. . .
This past Sunday, March 29th, I entered the building where my Bride and I Worship with a group of wonderful (well, all but one). . . .(Hey, just kidding) people meet to Worship, Pray, Study God’s Word, and share our lives and llove. It seemed different somehow, and I was wondering if the difference was in the nearly empty building – or in the nearly empty me.
Before we left we had welcomed our single guest (the broadcast technician), our “Children’s Choir” had sung for us (led by their mother), our Music Director had led us in a few Hymns, played the violin, and shared a thought with us about “running with patience the race that is set before us. . .” (see Hebrews 12:1), and the Pastor had shared what he hoped was an encouraging, and very short (yea!!) message . Nine people, staying at least six feet apart (lol), and no one touching each other except the kids (two brothers and two sisters -with the youngest in the nursery with the Pastor’s wife), along with me, the writer – and you know I don’t count.
There was something dreadfully wrong with that picture. In reality God was there, the building had not changed, it was fresh and clean, temperature was perfect, sound system and live stream went well. . .but something was missing.
You know, of course, it was that the vast majority of the Church was not there. You were missing! You didn’t come! You didn’t stand among the other members of the Body, lloving, caring, sharing, and realizing the presence of God’s Spirit in those around you. It just wasn’t as it ought to be, as designed, as built, as envisioned, as. . .normal. Yes, that’s the word – NORMAL!
Unless I miss my guess it wasn’t normal for you either. There is a value in missing the gathering of God’s people of which we are a part in particular places and venues, and that is we see the mandatory nature of the Church. We are a single Body, of which every Believer is a part, and when the parts are separated our innermost being burns with abnormality.
Naturally there are those family members who don’t feel that abnormality because they have developed a “new normal.” They have given their innermost being over to a new mindset. They have quenched within themselves the Spirit of God who draws our hearts together with llove and care for one another. The “gathering” has become a place forsaken in our minds, and with time and distance we become strangers in our own family, and shut out the urgings of God’s Spirit wooing us along a path of collective ministry and shared goals.
Do you wonder what lies ahead for (you) us? I do. Your Pastor does! Others in the family do! Will there be normality again? Only God and you have the answer for that question.