Thank you on a Sunday morning

Dear Man in the Pew in Front of Me who said hello to me and introduced me to your sweet family,

Thank you.  Perhaps without realizing it, you made this makeup-less, scratched glasses-wearing, disheveled haired girl (Sorry, God, I’ll try to put more effort into getting dressed next time) feel secure.  It is not easy to “shop” for new churches, especially if you are a liberal wannabe-hippie-yet-sometimes-traditionalist church-seeker like me.  Every time I try out a new church, I sit in the back, glance at the elderly members, families, and couples, and wonder where my spot should be.  I feel reminded that I am young and single and uncertain of where I fit in.

Somehow you understood this and made me feel like I mattered, by asking me what brought me there today, smiling and really listening.  You invited me to coffee hour and didn’t just dump me by the sugar bowl to go talk to other people like so many have done, but proceeded to introduce me to your friends, share stories about your wife and children, and listen to me gush about my students.  It wasn’t to get anything in return (a babysitter, a choir member, a potential job connection) and it wasn’t to hit on me (you are probably 20 years older than me and clearly head-over-heels for your wife).  It was (I believe) because you understand that we all come to church a little lonely, a little broken, looking for someone who really sees us.  We are each, in our own way, coming to make sense of this life, seek forgiveness when we fail miserably, and heal.

I grew up in a close-knit church, and if I know God exists, it is because I was surrounded by angels who showed me that every Sunday and throughout the week.  Yet, shown your simple act of kindness, of acceptance, I ask myself if I have extended the same to visitors of my church in the past.  Or to new colleagues at work, new classmates, new dancers at Zumba.  I don’t think I have.  I believe I was too wrapped up in the people and things that mattered to me to look around and realize that there were others around me, feeling a little lonely, waiting for someone to really see them.

Thank you for reminding me that we cannot fully love God without doing this.  That we cannot call ourselves believers in what is good without stepping outside of ourselves to see others as they are, looking at them, and really listening.

It is my mission to change this week.  Thank you for showing me how.

Sincerely,

Lizzy