SUNDAY @BLACK OAK

 May I crack the front door of our church just a bit?  Yesterday Black Oak had quite the day.


The first hour was great.  Well, since my hubs was the SS teacher...I'd say that.  But that's my story and I'm sticking to it.


After class we began to set out the preparations for Kingdom Kids.  The children @BOBC sit in church with their parents for the first two songs and then go down front for Pastor's "children's church".  That's a lesson which captures every adult's imagination.  Then the kiddos are dismissed to the back.  


I peeked out at the congregation and we had a light crowd.  There were may have been 30 people sitting in the pews and there were NO children!  #steppingonmylip


Our service started and when it was time for the choir, the three women and four men went to the front to sing.  Afterward as they stepped down, one lady who has been experiencing atrial fibrillation stumbled and someone grabbed for her and she landed on the first pew.  The Lord began to call His troops together.


Up popped a sweet LPN in the back, dressed in scrubs for her job after church and armed with her stethoscope.  Our patient's husband and other men helped our friend to the back.  The church was stunned.  Although this lady has had episodes and we've prayed, this was the first episode we've witnessed.  And we simply are not ready to lose this precious woman.  


This saint has served the Lord from North Africa to South Fayetteville and everywhere in between.  Although she's ageless, we could discreetly describe her chronological assignment to the decade that rhymes with "greaties".  She's an A+ role model for being a God-truster/pointer...a ladylike husband-lover...and she's a champion advocate in prayer.  She constantly loves on folks with food and cards and calls.  She's my hero.  You know that song "Give Me Jesus"?  That's her story, too.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu2E2FUcIiE

The congregation reacted.  Heads bowed together to immediately plead her case.  Then our Pastor led prayers from the front.  We sang a song, knowing she could hear us in the back and know that we loved her.  


Besides that, we were helpless.  Such a time calls for total dependence on God and that's hard because we want desperately to DO something.  We force ourselves to remember that He holds us in his hand and nothing gets through His grip without permission.  We know this lady's number of days was settled in heaven since before she was born and nothing can take a day away until her job He gave her to do is complete.  I know these truths and lean back on them with my whole weight...but we just didn't know what number had been assigned to last Sunday.  So we asked for mercy.


This story ends well because our sister in Christ was granted more time.  Bright and early the next morning she was in a cardiology appointment for more evaluation and was hooked to a monitor.  It's calm now, but yesterday things were pretty frantic.  In fact, our pastor dismissed church without his message.  He looked out at distraught faces and knew no one could absorb more.  That was fine because yesterday, God was the Teacher.  Here are four points I gleaned from His lesson plan:

FATHER KNOWS BEST

I was disappointed there were no children there on Sunday, but that turned out to be a good thing.

BODY LIFE WORKS

God's church body functions as one; the drama required all hands on deck and each hand pitched in.  When we tried to think of songs to sing, a voice from the back row was a sweet teen who said she thought Amazing Grace would be appropriate.  Everyone knew that song...and we need to know songs so that in such unscripted times, we can cheer ourselves or others.

LAST WORD

The same Almighty who spoke all of creation into being...worked to calm a speeding heart and give a wife back to an 89-year-old husband who was emotionally spent.  God had the last word.

EYES UP

As our friend left church yesterday, she was apologizing in sobs because she seemed to think her episode pulled our eyes away from the Lord and onto her.  

Don't fret, Sweetheart.  We knew we were in over our heads, so our eyes instinctively went up.  The One who calmed the seas would not consider one little heart muscle a heavy lift.  And even though no one verbalized David's 121st Psalm, we knew  "our help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth".


Now we must be careful to remember to thank El Roi (the God Who Sees).  Our little church may be way out in the country, but it was on His GPS system.  He saw our needs and our turmoil and we are VERY grateful for His answer to our prayers.