I stop after chapel to check my phone and read the text:
"Call me when you get a minute...I need some advice"
Wasn't it just a few years ago she was convinced I didn't know anything?
I called quickly after staff meeting, wondering what this was all about. And so begins the conversation...
"I went to church last night and I wanted to talk to you about something."
What follows is an awesome conversation about the sacrament of communion. My advice mostly centered on me asking questions...what do you think? How did that feel?
I hung up the phone and realized...she really already had the answer. And though we have never talked specifically about communion...she knew. I had never laid out my own belief in words or direction. Still...she knew.
When she left for college my biggest worry was whether I had taught her all she needed to know...had I remembered everything. Really what parent could teach it all? But an entire church family...they could.
I've heard that it takes a village to raise a child. I think it takes a church. Spiritual formation is abounding in the lives of our children and youth...even when we aren't sure...even when we don't see the fruit or our labor.
I see it happening in the smile of a birthday boy proudly displaying his art,
...and this treasure of a drawing we found in the sanctuary one Wednesday,
...and the text that read, "Even with 100 degree fever he's still singing Waves of Mercy"
...and my sweet little niece's drawing about her Sunday school lesson on the Ark of the Covenant.
I look down the pew at the one I remember as a little girl with cute freckles. She's all grown up now...not far from being a mother herself. I smile and give thanks for parents who brought her to church...for Sunday school teachers and song leaders...for snack makers and VBS servants...for van drivers, camp counselors, nursery caregivers, youth leaders, confirmation mentors. The list is as long as those people who walk in and out of our church doors each week. Every member doing their part in the body of Christ. No a village is not necessary for the raising of a child...but a church family is!
