We sat in our old pew today, after three months of not being able to attend church physically, because of the COVID-19 virus. It felt amazing to be back in our old pew, and I took a few moments to just feel all the emotions, and the blessings of being back in our usual spot on a Sunday morning. I embraced all the history our family has in our usual spot in church.
The pew where we were newlyweds, full of hope and dreams, and waiting for our life to start.
The pew where we became a family of three.
The pew where I had an emotional breakdown during Easter service, after a miscarriage.
The pew where we learned toys, crayons, and anything that could roll would roll all the way to the front of the sanctuary.
The pew where we welcomed our second son and became our complete family.
The pew with no padding, so any noise the boys made is heard across the sanctuary.
The pew where I got a hug from the lovely woman in front of us, because I had a rough service with our wild child, who wanted to run in church.
The pew where so many praise and prayer request from our community have been heard and answered.
I know that the church and pew are just a building and place to sit during church service, but they are also symbols of the history we have had inside and out of the church building. It became like a home, a safe place. Two years ago our church and another church in our small community made the difficult decision to become one church. Instead of struggling as two churches in our small community we made the crucial choice to become one church. Instead of struggling as two, we became one on a mission to grow our congregation, so that together we could continue our legacy of loving Jesus and the community together.
With that merger we now have two church buildings to use, and to respect both buildings and their history we used our old church just for Sunday school. However, the second church is currently undergoing some renovation, so we needed our Sunday school church for worship service. So, that Sunday morning, when I sat in that old pew, I finally dealt with the raw emotion of the merging, that I hadn’t dealt with yet. The change we had been going through, and the emotions of coming out of our quarantine cocoons caught up with me a little.
Although, I missed sitting in that pew, I also am really enjoying the newness of our merged churches. I used to be one of the youngest adults, with the youngest kids, and now I'm a little more in the middle. I get to see all the young mamas struggling with their little ones and remember where I was just a few short years ago. I hope that I can be the mentor to our young mamas that they need, the encouragement to keep coming to church even on the bad days. I get to look up to our older mamas, as they get to watch me still struggling a little with my wild child. Church is still our safe place, it is just a little different now. Different pew, a pew that we have new memories with and will continue to have new memories in. So it isn't goodbye to the old pew, it is until next time.
Today was just another reminder that it isn't the building that matters, but the people that come to the building faithfully generation after generation. The people who love Jesus, who are full of flaws, who are just trying to do their best to live in a difficult world that doesn't always appreciate our view from the pew.
The pew where we were newlyweds, full of hope and dreams, and waiting for our life to start.
The pew where we became a family of three.
The pew where I had an emotional breakdown during Easter service, after a miscarriage.
The pew where we learned toys, crayons, and anything that could roll would roll all the way to the front of the sanctuary.
The pew where we welcomed our second son and became our complete family.
The pew with no padding, so any noise the boys made is heard across the sanctuary.
The pew where I got a hug from the lovely woman in front of us, because I had a rough service with our wild child, who wanted to run in church.
I know that the church and pew are just a building and place to sit during church service, but they are also symbols of the history we have had inside and out of the church building. It became like a home, a safe place. Two years ago our church and another church in our small community made the difficult decision to become one church. Instead of struggling as two churches in our small community we made the crucial choice to become one church. Instead of struggling as two, we became one on a mission to grow our congregation, so that together we could continue our legacy of loving Jesus and the community together.
With that merger we now have two church buildings to use, and to respect both buildings and their history we used our old church just for Sunday school. However, the second church is currently undergoing some renovation, so we needed our Sunday school church for worship service. So, that Sunday morning, when I sat in that old pew, I finally dealt with the raw emotion of the merging, that I hadn’t dealt with yet. The change we had been going through, and the emotions of coming out of our quarantine cocoons caught up with me a little. Although, I missed sitting in that pew, I also am really enjoying the newness of our merged churches. I used to be one of the youngest adults, with the youngest kids, and now I'm a little more in the middle. I get to see all the young mamas struggling with their little ones and remember where I was just a few short years ago. I hope that I can be the mentor to our young mamas that they need, the encouragement to keep coming to church even on the bad days. I get to look up to our older mamas, as they get to watch me still struggling a little with my wild child. Church is still our safe place, it is just a little different now. Different pew, a pew that we have new memories with and will continue to have new memories in. So it isn't goodbye to the old pew, it is until next time.
Today was just another reminder that it isn't the building that matters, but the people that come to the building faithfully generation after generation. The people who love Jesus, who are full of flaws, who are just trying to do their best to live in a difficult world that doesn't always appreciate our view from the pew.
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