Community

Among the many things we love about our church are the small, close-knit atmosphere and the frequent fellowship meals. Our church family of about forty meets every-other Sunday for dinner after the morning service. The kids run around with each other in the large basement while the adults warm the casseroles, set out the fruit salads, and catch up on each other's lives. I do try to keep an eye on my children, but it gets difficult to count all four heads bobbing among the crowd while checking to see if my hot dish is indeed hot.

Once last May, Emma entered the women's bathroom in the dark, wandered into the shower and actually managed to pull the shower handle! (For full story click here and scroll down to Little Miss Independent Gets a Shock dated 5/10/10.) But the reassuring thing is that there are forty-some other pairs of eyes to help watch my children and return them to me, even if slightly wet from a cold shower.

"No, Toby! Hot!" I warned today as he wandered near the oven. I returned to my conversation, but had to break it again just a minute later as Toby stood gazing at the full coffee-pot. "No, Toby! Hot!" I yelled across the room. He reluctantly wandered away from danger and out of my line of sight. Several minutes later a young man in the church carried him over and dropped him off beside me. "I found him upstairs, wandering around in the sanctuary," He informed me, smiling. A few minutes later Toby was returned from upstairs again by another informant. I snuck in another conversation before a friend questioned me, "Do you want Toby heading up the stairs, because he's half-way up?" I decided that that was a good time to strap Toby to a high-chair.

I am reminded today that there is a reason God designed us to live in community, and I am thankful for that.