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In late February
my niece turned three and I went home to my parents house where she lives with
my sister. Being that I was home I went to my home church on Sunday morning.
Stevens has a hall instead of a sanctuary where we set up chairs into rows.
Addy my niece feels free to run from us to our neighbors who also got to the
same church, and to other friendly faces, then to the toys, and back again.
This particular Sunday she was running all over the place having a great time
and making everyone smile. She was running between my mom and I, who was on the
computer running the PowerPoint. About one minuet into the sermon my niece
started yelling for Aunt Betty. To calm her I went and sat on the floor with
her. We did the ABC puzzle that is her favorite at church. The pastor preached
and I still heard the message, but it was in a new way for me to receive. I
like to watch the speaker it helps me stay focused on the person and to
remember the message. I don’t remember quite what the message was (sorry Gene!)
but I remember the feeling of knowing my niece was beloved in this community
and I was too, we where perfectly welcomed in worship and to sit on the floor
well doing so.
But a
church I was involved in had terribly uncomfortably pews and the kids would
kick them and get yelled at or get the dirty look. I was super uncomfortable
growing up in a church where you could move. They quickly sent the kids to
Sunday school, chasing them away from worship. So I was led to think how
often to we chase ‘kids’ or all of the children of God who are a little different
and who want AND need to sit on the floor. Having my passion for disability studies,
I think first of those ‘least of these’ who are differently abled. But what
about people who have been wounded by the church and are trying to believe
again. Do we force them into the ‘pews’ of their past that helped contribute to
the pain and woundedness? These are questions I don’t have answers to but I
wonder what if we all worshiped from the floor.
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