Month: September 2024

legacies left

Posted on by Grace Day

The music is modern, meaning loud, amplified electronically, the words are on a screen generated by a computer, as is the music, the dress is casual – sneakers, jeans – no hats or high heels here – all this perhaps incongruous with the high, vaulted ceiling, the rows of wooden pews, and the tall stained-glass windows on both sides of this sacred space we call a sanctuary. Time has brought about many changes, but this old church building still stands despite more than a century of changes and challenges all around her.

Today, we tend to worship in auditoriums or auditorium like buildings, perhaps making us feel more like spectators than participants in worship. However, this old church’s sanctuary lives up to its name. Typically, a sanctuary is a place set apart as sacred or holy. It is a place where we come together to worship God. A sanctuary is a safe place, a place of refuge and rest, a place of protection and peace. A sanctuary is the place we go to meet with God.

Such is the sanctuary in this church built in the 1890’s. The neighborhood surrounding the church has changed often, but the church still stands, a constant in this ever evolving culture. As I sit in the pew, I find myself wondering about the people who occupied these pews a century ago. Who were they? What were their lives like? Do they know their legacy of faith continues to this very day?

I found some clues in the writing on some of the stained-glass panels. There are names and dates such as – “World War Heroes 1917-1919, Company 128th Infantry A.E.F.” (interesting that it doesn’t say “World War 1”, but at that time people did not foresee that there would too soon be another world war). Another pane contains “Mr. Campbell W. Parker and Mrs. Mary M. Parker and daughter Nettie”, while another reads, “Rev. and Mrs. John Bushong/ Rev. and Mrs. David O. Darling” and another with the names “Rev. and Mrs. Charles T. Price”.

These people and so many others have passed on years ago, but they left us a legacy that lives on in this sanctuary, a sanctuary which today is a place of hope, of protection, of safety, peace and worship. This century old sanctuary is truly a place set apart in this world full of despair, violence, worry and chaos.

However, I think the world today is not so different as I imagine it to be from the world the people who worshiped in this sanctuary before us inhabited a century or half a century ago. At least in regard to those things that truly matter, I don’t think all that much has changed. As King Solomon correctly observed –

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, ‘Look! This is something new’? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)

So true! The human drama that is this life really hasn’t changed, even though clothing styles, music, food, pastimes, modes of travel, ways of earning a living, and so on have changed over time. However, we still face the same struggles that those before us faced, such as having to deal with crime and violence. The first murder happened quite early in human history, in the first family actually. It took place between brothers. Cain murdered his brother Abel out of jealousy, because Abel found favor with God, while Cain did not.

“Nothing new under the sun.” We human beings continue to deal with jealousy, greed, selfishness, pride, comparison, hatred – all of which lead us down a path that too often ends in violence, crime, harm and hurt, and sometimes murder. We deal with the hurt of broken relationships, whether that be within marriages, families or friendships – the pain is real. Ever since sin severed our relationship with our Heavenly Father, our other relationships have been subject to fracture as well.

Our human quest for identity, meaning, purpose and value in this life hasn’t changed with the centuries. We still want to know that we matter. We still search for a place to belong. We still desire connection and acceptance. We find these things in the sanctuary of God’s house when we come together to meet with Him there. This has not changed over time.

Perhaps it is only the outward form of things that has changed. A century ago, among those who entered the sanctuary there might have been blacksmiths, pony express riders, newspaper reporters, – instead of today’s car mechanics, mail truck drivers, podcasters. Jobs may have changed, but our need to be productive through meaningful work remains unchanged. Likewise, our need to connect with and to know our Creator God remains constant throughout our human history. King Solomon described it in this way –

“He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Created in God’s image, we were made to know and to worship Him. To this end King Solomon built a temple for God to inhabit and we are told – “the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.” (2 Chronicles 5:14)

For centuries men have been building churches, cathedrals, sanctuaries – places where God’s people could gather together to worship Him. As I sit in this particular sanctuary Sunday after Sunday, I am grateful for the people who built this sacred space over one hundred years ago and for those whose faithfulness has preserved this old sanctuary even as all around it, buildings have deteriorated with the passage of time.

Those whose names are mentioned on the stained glass and countless others whose names I do not know, have left us the legacy of this sacred space, a beautiful space, still standing in the middle of a profane world, a world that desperately needs to meet with God. I am thankful for the legacy their faithfulness has left to us today – this space in which to worship God.

Someday, when we are worshiping God together in that sanctuary not built by human hands, I will get a chance to meet all those who have worshiped in this sacred sanctuary over the past century. I will get the chance to thank them for their faithfulness in preserving this sacred space and passing it down through the generations. I will thank them for leaving us this legacy.

sincerely, Grace Day

it was the sunflowers

Posted on by Grace Day

I suspected the sunflowers from the very beginning, and in the end, it turned out to be true, my suspicions proved to be correct – it had been the sunflowers all along. Now sunflowers probably seem like they should be the least likely suspects when any type of wrongdoing or crime occurs. After all, they are so cheerful. They don’t seem capable of deceit or malice of any kind. At least that’s what I’ve always thought, until now. I believed sunflowers to be a trustworthy flower.

But that all changed with tonight’s unexpected mystery drama. It started as an ordinary errand – me running into Meijer to pick up just a few things before heading home. It ended with me at the self-checkout scanner, discovering that I no longer had my credit card in my hand. Ok, that requires some explanation.

I entered the store, car keys and credit card in hand. Normally those two items are in a pocket of whatever I’m wearing at the moment, but my attire was void of pockets and it was just a quick stop, not major grocery shopping. I made my rounds quickly and was headed for self-checkout. At this point I passed the flower/plant area located right across from the checkout and seeing a large selection of beautiful sunflowers there, I decided to treat myself to some sunflowers to brighten my kitchen and keep me company. (sunflowers are supposed to be good company, being known as a friendly flower and all)

So I began pulling out different bunches of sunflowers from the black buckets of water that held them, so as to better compare the blooms and decide which bouquet I wanted to take home. My decision finally made after some brief agonizing over which was the prettiest, the freshest, of all the bunches of sunflowers, I proceeded to the checkout line. There I relaxed, pleased with my impulse purchase, as well as with the speed with which I had navigated my way through the large store, successfully selecting all the items on my list, thereby completing my task. I could cross it off my to-do list. However, my relaxed and self-satisfied state of being was abruptly cut short.

Imagine my shock when I wheeled my cart up to the scanner and discovered only my car keys in my left hand, no credit card! I could not check out. I needed to backtrack, to retrace my steps in order to see where I had dropped my card. Of course, the sunflowers were my first stop, but I did not find my card there. So next I went to produce, specifically the strawberries. There I had had a brief conversation with a stranger, a fellow shopper. We lamented together the lower quality and the higher price of the strawberries currently, as they are not really “in season” anymore.

She and her husband were still in this area as I sped through, and she became aware of my situation. She was very kind and concerned, looking with me in the area where we had stood and talked. Then I was off to continue my reverse route in the store. Not finding my card, I began to worry that it would fall into unscrupulous hands who would then use it to purchase all kinds of things that I could in no way afford. I thought of the melting ice cream in my shopping cart. (priorities?) I thought about checking with the store to see if a good Samaritan had perhaps found my card and turned it in.

Then I came to my senses and made a plan. Leaving my cart at the checkout place in the care of an attendant, I went to my car to get my phone and a different credit card. I called to report my card lost and put a “lock” on it. Then I got back in an even longer line to check out. After checking out, I couldn’t give up the feeling that my card was still somewhere in the store, as yet undiscovered. So I decided to take one last tour of the store in search of my lost card.

This time my search was calmer because my card was already “locked”, no one could use it. I definitely got my steps in as I walked again everywhere I had been previously. You can cover a lot of ground in big stores like Meijer. I’ll never know my step count because I don’t have one of those devices, but I’m guessing it would have been an impressive number if a count were kept. So I’ll count extra steps as an extra blessing for the day.

Then, because my eyes were on the ground, I found a penny! Somehow that’s always a big deal to me. Don’t ask me why, must be a childhood thing. Also, I ran into the kind lady and her husband again, as they were still in the store. I thanked her and assured her that things were taken care of even though I was still searching. This time I went in the order in which I had shopped, instead of the reverse order, which means my very last stop of my very last search, was – you guessed it – the sunflowers.

I scanned the floor and the tables on which the black buckets of water filled with the bouquets of fresh flowers sat. I had looked into the two buckets holding the sunflowers previously, but this time I stuck my hand down into the water among the stalks of the sunflowers. Nothing in the first bucket, BUT – in the second bucket as I felt around, reaching all the way to the bottom of the bucket, I felt it! My credit card! I was right all along. It had slipped out of my hand when I was pulling out sunflowers to examine before deciding which ones I wanted to buy. This was the last thing I did before entering the checkout line.

The sunflowers were harboring, actually hiding my credit card all this time. But they did proffer a peace offering of sorts. When I pulled my credit card out of the water, a packet of that stuff you put in the water to keep your flowers fresh longer, came out with it! The sunflowers I had purchased, didn’t have one of those packets attached, so perhaps this was their attempt at appeasement, their apology for pick pocketing my credit card? (and for melting my ice cream, for causing me stress, panic and worry)

As I write this, the guilty sunflowers have been cut down to size and are sitting in a ball jar on my kitchen table. They certainly are a cheerful, friendly flower but I don’t know if I can ever look at them the same way again. We’ll see how I feel about them in the morning. Right now they remind me of the short-lived panic I experienced when I realized I had lost my credit card. How easily my peace and composure were shattered – until I came to my senses and realized there were readily available solutions to this problem. I was not in danger, no one was hurt.

It was a minor, unexpected inconvenience – a mystery that was rather quickly solved. My Heavenly Father is with me in the deep hurts and tough circumstances of this life. But He also cares about my mundane mystery of the missing credit card – He provided the kindness of a stranger, a penny, extra steps and that stuff for the water to help keep my guilty sunflowers living and lovely longer. (although, if I had not decided last minute to buy sunflowers, none of this would have happened – maybe there’s something to be said for sticking to one’s list with no deviation? – no, what fun would that be?)

I sure was filled with all kinds of worry and panic though, when I first realized my credit card was no longer in my hand but somewhere in the very large, very full of people store. In fact, I was surprised at how quickly I became fearful and anxious. And in this life, there is always something, usually many things, that can make you and me fearful and anxious. But our Heavenly Father does not want us to live full of fear and worry. Jesus told us this –

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:25-34)

The sunflowers sitting on my kitchen table are God’s “lilies of the field”, clothed in perfect splendor. When I look at my sunflowers, instead of remembering my temporarily misplaced credit card and my accompanying panic and worry – I will enjoy their cheerful beauty and the peace their presence brings me because they proclaim God’s infinite care for all of His creation, including me. God takes care of them. He is taking care of me day by day.

It was the sunflowers who hid my credit card – it is the sunflowers who shout God’s goodness and glory from my kitchen table –

sincerely, Grace Day

a seat at the King’s table

Posted on by Grace Day

I sat at the King’s table today. Actually, there was no table in the room. Our chairs formed a circle around the room where we had come together for study and fellowship. During this time, we took communion together, fulfilling the scripture which says –

“For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Corinthians 11:26)

Proclaiming both Jesus’s death and His return? This might not make sense, given that if someone is dead, why would you be expecting their return. BUT – these disciples who were at the table of the Last Supper with Jesus, (which also turned out to be the first communion observance) witnessed not only Jesus’s death, but they also witnessed His resurrection and His subsequent ascension into heaven, with the promise that He would one day return. Luke gives an account of this in Acts, saying –

“After He (Jesus) said this, He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.’ ” (Acts 1:9-11)

When I come to the Lord’s table for communion, I am celebrating and commemorating Jesus’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension and promised return, all simultaneously. It is definitely a table full of hope, hope because Jesus is coming back! Jesus told His disciples –

“if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:3)

A seat at the King’s table – this is what is offered to me and to you – now and in eternity.

“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (Revelation 19:9)

That’s us! Something to look forward to, but in the meantime, God’s provision is never lacking. A seat at my Heavenly Father’s table is always available to me and to you, too, dear readers, even in our darkest, most difficult, dangerous times. King David knew this to be true personally. He wrote about his experience of God’s presence, protection and provision, made manifest through a seat at God’s table – King David wrote in Psalm 23 –

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” (Psalm 23:4-5)

My Heavenly Father is present with me in each and every valley I travel through on this earthly journey. And just like He did for David, God prepares a table just for me, right where I am, when I am tired, discouraged, fearful, anxious, defeated, doubtful – surrounded by my enemies – both physical and spiritual – feeling unable to take even one more step of faith – it is then God bids me “take a seat at His table” where “my cup overflows” – even while I am still in the valley, still surrounded by my enemies.

At God’s table, in His presence, I experience His abundant provision for me and His protection surrounding me, even when I am in this most dangerous of places – “the valley of the shadow of death.” You know what I find most comforting and encouraging about this truth from God’s word? It doesn’t say “when I have fought my way through the valley on my own, when I have scaled the mountain and arrived at the top – then He will prepare a feast for me as a reward.”

No. Like God did for David, my Heavenly Father prepares a table of provision for me at my moment of greatest need, when I am too weary to continue, when the circumstances in my valley have filled me with fear, with doubt, with despair – it is then God prepares my place and bids me sit at His table, and my cup overflows right there in the valley while my enemies look on. (maybe with wonderment, surprise, even envy?)

At God’s table I experience renewal and restoration, just like David experienced when he said this –

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul.” (Psalm 23:1-2)

David understood the honor, the provision, the protection, the restoration that comes from having a seat at the King’s table. When he was king, this conversation took place –

“The king asked, ‘Is there no one still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show God’s kindness?’ Ziba answered the king, ‘There is still a son of Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet.’ . . . When Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David, he bowed down to pay him honor. . . . ‘Don’t be afraid,’ David said to him, ‘for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.’ . . . So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the king’s sons. . . . And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table, and he was crippled in both feet.” (2 Samuel 9:3-13)

What a beautiful picture of the protection and the provision that a seat at a king’s table provides for the one who is fortunate enough to receive an invitation to dine at the table of the king. Like Mephibosheth, you and I are extended such an invitation. There is a seat at the King’s table prepared specifically for me and one specifically for you, dear reader. And like Mephibosheth, our invitation is permanent, we can always eat at the King’s table “like one of the King’s sons (or daughters) ” because that is what we are.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)

When I am walking through the valley, even the valley of the shadow of death, I will remember that I have a seat at the King’s table. He has already prepared it for me and His table is present even in the valley, right here, right now, not later, not someday – my Heavenly Father’s table is fully prepared before me today. Why would I not take my seat at the King’s table? There I always experience rest, renewal, restoration and the truth of these words –

“but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

grateful to have a seat at the King’s table today and every day –

sincerely, Grace Day