“How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! ... Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young at your altars ... .” -Ps 84:1-3 (NOAB)
This past Sunday I was tasked with doing “children’s church” for five- to eight-year-olds at St. Mary’s in Arlington, VA. There were 16 in the class. I hadn’t been in a third grade Sunday school class since I was a third grader myself. Lordy! Give thanks for the children and youth ministers in our churches across this land. LOL.
When I was a third grader, my church was Highland Park United Methodist
Church in Dallas, Texas. My last visit there was Easter weekend in 2015 with
my parents and daughter. My father was saying his, as Ronald Reagan termed
it, “long goodbye,” and wanted to go back to one of the happiest chapters in
his life before he lost his mind completely. As I read the appointed lessons for
Sunday, I immediately thought of my third grade Sunday school teacher,
Claranell Lewis and a story she once shared with an equally jittery bunch of
youngsters as I experienced on this past Sunday.
You see, sometime during that year this verse came up in our class. Mrs.
Lewis loved birds. She loved me and my little brother too. Many Sunday
afternoons after church our whole family would join her to feed the birds on
her patio after we’d had lunch at Highland Park Cafeteria. That particular
morning, she told the class about her birds, showed us several different
pictures of various birds in one of those big books like you’d find on a coffee
table at home.
Her lesson was about how sometimes our physical homes may change if our
parents had to move. Birds sometimes move as well, she told us. “For
example,” she said, “Hummingbirds move thousands of miles a year but
always make a home wherever they go. They can still sing. It’s like that for us
too.” We were reminded we always have a home, a lovely dwelling place, at the
altar of the Lord in our churches. It doesn’t matter where life takes us. God is
always with us and is especially close when at His altar.
This very moment as I write to you, I have a bird feeder outside my dorm room
window at Virginia Theological Seminary. My father loved the red cardinals
more than most any other bird. There is a particular cardinal--I’ve even named him “Pop”--that always appears to be looking straight at my room while he snacks. When I see my friend Pop, my heart smiles knowing my daddy is in a lovely dwelling place with no sorrow, no doubts, no fears and is happy.
At times I think we may need to remind ourselves of this as well, that
happiness can be found at the “lovely dwelling place.” Particularly those
among us who may find themselves in the autumn of their days, downsizing,
moving to be near their children, maybe even finding themselves isolated like
never before. More importantly, as members of Brothers Andrew, we have a
calling to connect with others, not only in our own age range, but all ages. Is
there someone in your circle who’d love to have you pick them up for a
Brotherhood meeting sometime, or have a chance to get out with you for a
bit?
I think I will share this story with a bishop friend of Brothers Andrew not yet
65. I haven’t seen him in several months. He lives just two miles away in a
nursing/retirement home due to a stroke from a couple of years ago. He’s not
able to work anymore. Our visits are always filled with song, prayer and a
little holy foolishness. Care to join me in spirit with a similar trip in your town?
I pray you will. As they say in one of our renewal movements in the church
called “Cursillo” (ker see yo), “Christ is counting on you,” for such as this. And
so are the rest of us.
