A child walked in

Alison is on leave until Monday 2 May. In the meantime, here’s a little god-moment which happened to Donald on a recent Tuesday. He writes: 

I was ‘filling in’, presiding at the 5.00pm service at the local Anglican church. It was a Tuesday, with a congregation of three present. The Gospel reading of the day, according to the lectionary the rector uses, was Jesus putting a child in the midst of the disciples.

I was in the middle of an ‘off the cuff’ elucidation of the Gospel when a child with, presumably, their mother, walked in through the main door. I stopped talking and told them that they were welcome to come in, have a look around, have a sit down or join in if they wanted to. The mum said, ‘We’d just like to light a candle.’

I took them over to the sand tray while the child carefully lit a candle and shed a few tears as mum put her arms around their back. ‘A special prayer?’ I asked. ‘Yes.’ They then moved back to a pew in the middle of the church and sat down. I quickly wrapped up the homily and moved into the ‘Prayers of the People’, with our visitors very much in mind. During the prayers mum shed a tear or two as well.

They took their opportunity to leave at the greeting of peace. I have no idea what concern caused them to come to the church, but am thankful that we were actually there at a time when the church would normally be locked. Just a little ‘God moment’ for those of us who were there, and, I pray, for our visitors, as well. Ω

Reflect: When has a gospel story come alive in your life? Why not write about it? We are so deeply nourished by each other’s stories – perhaps we could share it here!

Emailed to Sanctuary 27 April 2022 © Sanctuary, 2022. Photo by Alain Ernst on Unsplash.