Church & Ministry

One Friday night in November found me and my family (along with several dozen other folks) sitting in Miss Kay’s proper parlor singing at the top of our lungs.

We almost missed it. Like the classic “big picture” person that I am, I had mixed up my dates, double-booked house guests, and created the very distinct possibility that we would be absent from a mainstay of the church’s yearly calendar. File this one under “How Not to Be a Good Pastor’s Wife.”

Fortunately we didn’t miss it. A little rearranging and a couple blushing conversations later, we ended up at Miss Kay’s front door promptly at 7:00. (Okay, not promptly… but we did get there.) The evening began like any other social gathering—food and small talk—but then about forty minutes in, something happened. A whisper spread through the house and with the enthusiasm of children, this eclectic group aged 17 months to 77 years assembled themselves in the front parlor (yes, I do mean parlor). Out came the guitars; next a mandolin; and before you knew it, someone was seated at the piano, running gospel scales up and down.

Then it began.

He sped through the void, an ancient Authority trailed by an army of grave Dignities, together a legion of radiance and power. He thought nothing of the emptiness of space. Indeed, he did not perceive the emptiness, for wherever he flew he was bathed in the brightness of the One-Who-Is. He had been sent from the High Throne to bear a message from the One to the little creatures of that distant world.

Distant? In one way, certainly. One of the smaller globes whirling about a rather insignificant star perched on the edge of a nondescript galaxy, this world was a mere speck in the cosmic expanse. On the other hand, it was not distant at all, for here the One-Who-Is had shaped beings like Himself and had breathed His own breath into them. While the One saw everything always, He had focused His purpose upon this tiny planet. Here He had planned a drama that was unfolding like a long story in chapters of creation, fall, calling, redemption, tribulation, and consummation. A new chapter of that epic was about to open.

The Authority reflected that he had often journeyed this way in the past. He had once been sent to a man on the banks of the Ulai to deliver an explanation that outlined the future of this little world. Later on, he had been sent to that same tired man, this time to tell of a coming Anointed One. The man had written down these descriptions, and the information had become an important center of attention for those who anticipated the Anointed One.