Thinking about church, community, our kids and all their families

Aunt Jan's funeral was yesterday. It was sad, moving, and glorious. Lots of crying and laughter, just like most funerals of the saints.

There was a lot of talk about the Rylie church that was the home church for Aunt Jan and Uncle Jack and mom and dad for about 60 years now. It is the church that they helped to found and where I and many of those at the funeral "grew up;" A lot of the talk was about all the good that came out of that small community, often in spite of our religious beliefs. We talked about how Rylie's saving grace was the love shown in the strength of the relationships: people stayed in the same place, were involved in each others lives, and "showed up" at each others' significant events - marriage, funerals, hospital stays, etc. I would also add that, for me, another saving grace was the emphasis at Rylie on God as our ultimate authority and the fact that the Bible was his Word, the revealing of his will. We were taught and believed that God was to be taken seriously - more seriously than anything else; therefore, pay attention to his word. This was a great thing for me, because ultimately, God used these tenets of faith to help deconstruct for me some awfully bad theology that we lived with.

Here's the thing. As great as the gift of Rylie was to us, and as great as it was to have for my entire childhood this small community of people as supports in our lives, it is God who works to produce what we need and he does that through a variety of different family, church and social situations.

I did not give my children the same church, home and school situation that I enjoyed. We did not have the same kind of lifelong friends that my parents had with Jack and Jan, going to church with them week after week, in the same place for 60 years or so. But I think that our kids did receive other spiritual advantages because of their childhood situations. They in turn will not be able to give their kids all the same advantages that they enjoyed, but they will bless their children with different blessings.

Here is the key I think for blessing our children. First, understand that it is through God that all blessings flow. He is the source of all blessings and throughout his long history with his people he has found ways to bless through all kinds of different cultural and social situations. Then, bathe everything that you do in love: love God with all your heart, always seeking to do his will, and love your neighbor as God has loved you. If you do this - and you will make mistakes and you will experience "sin interference"- still, God will bless your children's lives just as you were blessed, your parents before you, and their parents before them.

Praise be to Him!