My church is not the large gathering of believers that fill the sanctuary every Sunday morning but, rather, the small group of couples we meet with on a weekly basis in one of our homes. We have belonged to one of these small groups off and on (mostly on), since our kiddos were littles. The nature of the groups has evolved over the years and people have come and gone. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. The demographic was whatever stage of life we were at.
When our kids were young, the couples in our group had young children also. I can remember nights where everyone brought thier littles and we banished them to the basement with the dog and some junk food never to be heard from again until their parents called them to surface because they were leaving. It’s a school night you know.
Every summer we would gather together for a camping trip. Those camping trips were delightful and great memories were made. The guys (I mean the men….the dads) chasing each other around the campsite with rubber tubing full of water, hidden under their clothes, spraying any unsuspecting camper (in our midst) who might be reading or relieving themselves or just innocently roasting a marshmallow around the campfire. We had a complex system of tarps set up between all the sites in case it rained (when didn’t it?). The moms would spend the week prior baking and then we would all share the spoils with other families. One year we had a campsite decorating contest. One family decorated their trailer like a gingerbread house. One lucky family had a motor home with a heater while the rest of us froze in our tents on the cold ground. There were no hard feelings. Well not much.
We celebrated all the special events just like the new testament church, sharing our food and our resources. We prayed for all the tribulations as well. We actually had a family whose Mr. had to go to prison, we saw the wife and kids through that. We had another family find out their husband and father had some very secret and dangerous pathologies. We prayed each other through brain tumors , job losses, childhood diseases and accidents, education choices, pregnancies, birth defects, divorces, death of parents and every other manner of struggles such as are common to mankind. We blessed the less fortunate whenever possible and we always involved our kids so they would learn what charity and compassion is. We weren’t entirely successful.
There were a few years when our group kind of disintegrated and people moved on to other phases of life or different church bodies or left the city entirely. I must say that our lives felt much more onerous and we did some serious falling apart during those lonely years. As Barbra Streisand sang “people who need people are the luckiest people in the world”. I have found that to be so true.
As we navigated our particular journey, the Lord led us to another community of believers and due to the massive gathering of people here we realized that we needed the intimacy of a smaller group of friends, so we began the hunt for the ‘just right’ group of couples once again. We are a motley crew tied together by our faith in Christ. We may not have befriended these particular people on our own but under the umbrella of our small group, we fit well. We have shared our stories with each other week after week and are humbled by how ‘the same’ we really are. In this new group (10 years old now) , all of our kids are grown and we are facing aging and retirement and grand-parenting. Some of us would like to retire but can’t. Some of us would like to grandparent but haven’t had that opportunity. Some of us are just trying to keep our adult kids from imploding. Some of us our just trying to keep ourselves out of financial ruin. Some of us are dealing with health issues that threaten our very existence. We have become extremely vulnerable with group of ‘friends become family’.
We bond as we pray and share the challenges our adult families are facing. Frequently we break bread together and a party breaks out. We share advice and mentor or encourage whomever is needing it most. We have provided meals for anyone in the group who is undergoing medical or financial stresses. We have walked some dear friends through deep loss. Some of us have holidayed together. Some of us have made salsa together. Some of have gone on motorcycle trips together. We have attended the weddings of each other’s kids. Many of us have become grandparents. We frequently turn our gatherings into social events and there is nothing wrong with that. We study the nuances of God’s word together and endeavor to figure out what it all means and how He meant for it to be applied to our lives in the here and now. We glean the wisdom each has in their areas of experience. We learn from each other and we encourage each other. We laugh. We cry. We pray. We rejoice. We celebrate. We empathize. We support.
I believe a big factor in bonding with our band of believers are the opportunities we have to serve together. Making meals at a local children’s hospital, packing shoe boxes for kids in 3rd world countries, delivering food hampers to struggling families at Christmas and Easter, blessing one of our own, struggling with cancer, by leaving gifts on their doorstep. Our latest challenge may be trying to do out part in taking care of God’s amazing earth that He has so graciously left us here to steward.
We have a commitment to this group of people because we cherish them. We depend on them. We need them. We love them. And, frankly, I don’t know how we would thrive or survive without them. We are so grateful not to be alone as we journey this crazy, mad, backwards, upside down world.
The Red Plaid Apron 
You must be logged in to post a comment.