lawn or meadow ? ... and hiding behind church walls?

May 2, 2010

Had a great time at the street ministry breakfast again this morning (find out about it at Another Chance Ministries site).

On the way home, I saw the most beautiful sight. The stretch of fresh green spring grass by the library was covered with dandelions in a beautiful mix of bright sunshine yellow flowersand snow-white seed balls. And right in the middle was a stretch of brilliant rainbow-hued tulips! Wish I’d had my camera along. But since I didn’t, I just left the sidewalk and walked right through this beautiful meadow, soaking up its natural beauty. Of course, I know a lot of folks, seeing it, would probably wrinkle their nose and raise their eyebrows in horror, wondering how the city could allow their lawns to get so weedy. But to me, it was like chancing upon a beautiful alpine meadow in the middle of the concrete jungle! Loved it!

Once again, I also walked past several churches. And again, they were surrounded by lots of cars, being Sunday morning, but again, not a person in sight. Oh yes, most of them had “welcome” signs outside – but as usual, nobody walking by seemed to be taking them up on it. And again I wondered if perhaps they might get more response if a few of the members were hanging around outside, with some coffee and snacks, saying a cheery hello to the passers-by, engaging them in conversation, personally inviting them in… or if even (what a startling idea!), the whole church group just sat around outside on those carefully tended stretches of grass and flowers, and met with Papa and each other right out there where people going by could watch and listen and ask questions, and maybe afterwards get invited home for lunch at member’s homes, or … Hmmm…

I have a planner someone gave me (put out by the Bible League of Canada). The entry for today read:
“ Psalm 22:9 … you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast”
“It is easy to say you believe certain things about God but to trust God with your day, your family, your future, your eternity, well, that is another thing. But God has been teaching you to trust since you were born.”

That’s true! We often think that before we knew God (or if we still don’t know Him), that He really isn’t interested in us, and we really don’t have anything to do with Him at all. But He really does care about every one of us … from our very beginning! That’s why He gives us fields of dandelions and tulips, among other things!