They say that tucked away in a little mountain pass in Colorado is a very beautiful but humble chapel. It’s a lovely little church in a breath-taking setting – a gathering place – a place of worship for the people that live there. But it has no lights. It has only pegs along the wall. The worshipers must bring their own lanterns and hang them on the pegs. If they don’t bring their own light or if there are only a few of them it will be dark and gloomy within.
Our church is the same. When we gather and each of us bring with us beaming from within, the light of God, O what a light it is. It is a collective spiritual brilliance. It outshines things like hurt, guilt, need, recession, disappointment, loss, fear, and pain. It is a light only present where believers gather and lend warmth and light to one another.
I see it in the faces of the choir. I hear it in the voices raised in song. I watch it in the quiet bowing of the reverent head to pray. It’s there by the fireplace where busy mothers encourage one another. It’s there in a manly embrace. It’s dropped into the offering plate as unto the Lord.
O God help us see how dark will be if we do not light one another, how cold it will be if we do not warm one another. Let us not neglect the assembly especially when things are cold and dark. — In Christ’s Name, Amen
When I was about five years old my dad had a week or two of training in New York City to be a military chaplain. While we were there our family lived in a very modest apartment. It was a different world from the Michigan farmhouse that was the parsonage of First Baptist Church in Wayland.
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