December 14 – “Torrents”

Well, hats off and kudos to the brave souls who made their way to church yesterday.  We managed to navigate through the driving rain … and then it got bad.  Torrential.  It was impossible to walk from the car to the front door without wading through some serious puddles in the parking lot.  Umbrellas did some good, but only for the top third of your body, since the rain found a way to blow side to side and up under any attempt at covering yourself.  And then it got really cold.  Way down into the 50’s.  Dead of winter cold.  Neither of us had so much as a sweater, either. 

We thought for a while that it would just be me and Chris and Wes (we picked him up on our way).  We got everything ready and then sat around with Wes at the piano and sang some songs.  Some were Christmas carols.  Some were old show tunes or old songs he used to play at some of the piano bar gigs he had in the past.  Finally, about ten minutes after our posted start time and during somewhat of a lull in the weather, Jennifer and her three kids arrived.  Wes immediately got the two younger boys to gather around the piano so they could accompany him with tambourines.  They were pretty good, too.  While we jammed with them, Dan and Wendy arrived, so I went ahead with the teaching (which involved kids, which God had provided in Adrian and Andrew).  Sam finally got there, so we managed to break into double digits.  Ten for church.  Hey, it was fun. 

Afterwards we drove by to see if the Santa and reindeer Nathan had strapped to his roof had made it through the storm intact.  They all seemed to be hanging in there.  Nathan and April and Cailyn were actually crawling into their car at that moment to head to Saltgrass for some lunch.  They invited us to join them.  Who am I to turn down such a generous invitation?  My chicken fried steak was really good.  By the time we got back home we were full and tired and apparently Chris was very sleepy.  She actually  crashed out on the couch for an hour or so.  Of course I stayed awake the whole time, watching over her.  Well, maybe not the whole time.  After all, we had Freddy watching out for the both of us.  And we all know what feelings of safety and comfort are inspired by her intimidating presence. 

1 Peter 2:1 says, “Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”

Father, thank you for those eight other folks who braved the rain  to gather together and do some worshipping yesterday.  Bless them for that.  Amen.