The Important Thing

Here’s my question of the hour. What if our fine, beautiful church buildings were by some fate of nature, torn to the ground and lay in ruins? What if you arrived for church some Sunday morning and the pews or chairs were buried Beneath a heap of wood and the only thing you could see on the ground was a roof and a broken steeple? Would you walk away and go home to your house and maybe cry a little? Would you immediately try to start looking elsewhere for another church to attend? What would you do?

I don’t hold on to too many things and consider them “Dear” because after all they are just things. When I arrived home from a trip last night, however, I found that the large tree just off of my back deck had blown completely over and was lying on top of the deck. My patio table and umbrella, my barbecue grill, and one of my favorite things, my little church birdfeeder were all lying underneath of that tree. The table and the grill and the umbrella all survived but my little church birdfeeder was in a million pieces. I know it sounds silly when I even write the words here but I cried uncontrollably about that little church feeder. I loved it! I loved watching the birds come to feast there each morning. It was really very charming. My husband and I even had a running joke about the “Cardinals” being the only birds who actually liked to go inside of the church. The other birds were content to stay outside of the building and sit on the sidelines and eat. That little church held many hours of enjoyment as it supported our love of nature. But here I am this morning crying over that church!

The church is not the building! The church that was torn apart in my previous scenario was not what was important! The people, the ones who gather at the building, are the most important part it’s never about stained glass windows or Coffee bars in the lobby, or platforms with tons of expensive sound equipment and instruments. It’s not the fancy pews or chairs that we sit on or how comfortable the carpet is to walk on. That is not the church! Here’s where the final scene from “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” flashes into my brain. Even when everything was taken from The Who’s, they still gathered grasping hands and had a song in their hearts and sang it. So, if you stood there on some fateful Sunday morning and arrived to find your church building in ruins, the question still remains. Would you go home and cry and sulk and dwell on What you had lost or would there be a “coming together” like The Who’s down in Whoville? Would there be a song in your heart? Would it be a sad song or a song of praise and Thanksgiving?

My birds needed some seed and support. After all, they didn’t recognize that my cute little “folksy” Church feeder was anything but a place where they could come and be fed. So, I am off to lay out some seed in a tray. I will still bet the “Cardinals” come!