Just before Christmas our "beginner" church was just that. We are renting a lovely sanctuary from a Seventh Day Adventist Church that does not use the sanctuary on Sundays. We are very grateful to have a such a beautiful place to worship. However, on most Sunday mornings the group of us numbered about 20 or so and the sanctuary can seat about 200. Then sometime in mid-December, more people began to come. Several people from another denomination had started to come before the pews began to fill up. Those several people liked what they heard and saw and they encouraged more families to try our church. The sanctuary has a center aisle and once you have found the pew and side you like, you pretty much stay planted there. Well, my husband and I are left-sided sitters as you would look at the sides from the back of the church. The newcomers clumped on the left side too. So, we were a bit lop-sided for a few weeks. Then the snow descended upon our area and church services were cancelled for 2 weeks in a row. Yesterday, which I will call "The Loaves and the Fishes Sunday", more people came and we are lop-sided no longer. The head count was just over 100!!! Before church started yesterday, a friend who sits on the other side, asked me, "Were you a former ________ (the name of the denomination that has joined us)?" I said,"No." Shortly after my friend said this, I looked back and saw many more filling in the right side. I am just amazed at how God is growing us. I am not one to stand up and shout Hallelujah or Amen, but with the loaves and the fishes He is giving us, I might just surprise myself and shout out a word of praise.
As we prepare for Lent on Wednesday, may the ashes remind us of the season between February 17 and Easter. A time to reflect and contemplate what God has done for us. Thank you, God, for the loaves and the fishes and many other blessings that You will reveal to me during this time.
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