no do not get off my lawn

Church shopping in our new area has begun. Last night we attended Ash Wednesday services in a town not to far from us. The church was originally built in 1906 - yay! my style! - and then rebuilt in 2007 and where beautiful it evoked the new and modern. Modern… new, not timeless, latest, present day, yah-da-yah-da… Uncertain now I walked to an empty pew, save a momma and her little girl at the other end, and looked about.

The entrance hymn began and we were joined by two little boys who at last found their momma. Songs were sung that I have never heard before, children fidgeted, babies cried, I couldn’t hear the gospel readings, and I prayed.

Well I tried. My thoughts were all over the place and kept going back to our last church of 20 some years, the Cathedral. Ancient. Original. Faith set in stone. Tissues always needed as my heart and soul was touched beyond this world. Children played, babies cried, but I never really “heard” them.

Literally bumped by a child back to the present by a typical little one, I moved a bit to give him more room. Momma noticed. Shoot!! Now I am embarrassed that I embarrassed her. I suddenly felt old, very old. The kind of old that generates the “get off my lawn” persona.

I saw it. I felt it. I prayed. I asked for help. And the Holy Spirit rose up and pinged my memory of once being a young momma taking two little ones to church paralleling the scenario that no liquid container is truly empty. There is always that last unpredictable drop that spills out regardless of how long you hold it upside down proving again that no one can fix normal. Children are children and the recycling container gets wet.

And then we were asked to give the sign of peace to our neighbors and as I turned and smiled to momma, an even bigger smile peak out from behind her extending a little hand just as the grammy in me stepped over the crone and I said “well hi!!” and shook her hand.

oh and yes we sure did get smudged! Everyone walked out looking like firefighters. lol!

The ashes? Palms from the last Palm Sunday; blessed, burned and mixed with incense and holy water representing an outward sign of our repentance and accepting Christ’s forgiveness.