finding our way home
In her book, Traveling Mercies, Ann Lamott shares a true story about a little girl, seven years old, who got lost in her neighborhood. This was apparently in a time when parents still considered the world safe enough that children were allowed to be out alone.
She ran up and down several streets but couldn’t find a single recognizable landmark. She became very frightened as her whole world had suddenly taken on a unfamiliar look. Finally a policeman saw her look of desperation and stopped to help. When she told him she was lost he put her in his police cruiser and drove her around asking her to look for something she could recognize.
Suddenly she saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman and said, “You can let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.”
Ann Lamott adds: “That is why I stay so close to my church—because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened I am, when I see the faces of the people in my church and hear their familiar voices, I can always find my way home.”
I love that story. Our church should be an important landmark. And not just a physical landmark, but a place and a group of people that bring identity and meaning to our lives. If the church is fulfilling its role it will be a place where all feel a sense of security and belonging.
Not only will we feel that familiarity but we will want others to feel it as well. We will go out of our way to share Jesus’ love with all who enter. In this way we are truly being the church that we are called us to be. The church will be a spiritual home for us and for all who are a part of it. We can always find our way home from there.
Pastor Wayne
She ran up and down several streets but couldn’t find a single recognizable landmark. She became very frightened as her whole world had suddenly taken on a unfamiliar look. Finally a policeman saw her look of desperation and stopped to help. When she told him she was lost he put her in his police cruiser and drove her around asking her to look for something she could recognize.
Suddenly she saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman and said, “You can let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.”
Ann Lamott adds: “That is why I stay so close to my church—because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened I am, when I see the faces of the people in my church and hear their familiar voices, I can always find my way home.”
I love that story. Our church should be an important landmark. And not just a physical landmark, but a place and a group of people that bring identity and meaning to our lives. If the church is fulfilling its role it will be a place where all feel a sense of security and belonging.
Not only will we feel that familiarity but we will want others to feel it as well. We will go out of our way to share Jesus’ love with all who enter. In this way we are truly being the church that we are called us to be. The church will be a spiritual home for us and for all who are a part of it. We can always find our way home from there.
Pastor Wayne