A Season of Church
When my three children were small, we were regular churchgoers. It was a real scramble getting everyone fed and dressed, out the door, pressing offering coins into little hands – but we did it. We did it for all of their childhood years, and it was incredibly special.
Then as they grew older, there was a new season of church. We all fell out of the habit, that all-rise togetherness of Sunday mornings. It may have been the increasing busy-ness of the weekends, growing children needing more sleep, that darn COVID, or maybe just everyone settling into their own personhood. In this new season, some of us would go to church and others would stay behind. And usually whoever went would come home and say, “I am so happy that I went to church, it felt good” and articulate what it was that felt good. The joyful music, the unity of reciting the liturgy together, seeing familiar faces, the cross leading the procession, being in community at the altar, sitting in silence with light streaming in the stained-glass windows. Instead of being a family activity, church was becoming more personalized – my children finding something different there, that one special thing that resonated with them that extended beyond just our family space in the pew.
The season we are in now, as they are moving into official adulthood, is going to church together as a family only on Christmas. This is the only time that we have now. And it is a pretty heartwarming experience – my son reciting the liturgy he learned so many years ago, my daughters singing with joy and vigor, everyone well practiced in the ways that we celebrate our faith as a community.
And I think that this is what will keep them coming back, these moments in their spiritual home where they feel close to God and each other. Maybe they will become regular churchgoers once again. Or perhaps they will just wander into a church from time and time and feel that comfortable beautiful sense of belonging to a loving God. In any season, it is a good and pretty amazing thing.