On New Year’s Eve we started our day with brunch, a walk on the beach with my family of three and a time of daydreaming together for the new year. After our time on the beach, we called our parents, followed by me calling my Granny, per usual. I had her on speaker phone as I usually would so that my husband could hear us talk. He always said listening to Granny and I talk to each other was one of his favorite things in life. My southern twang would come in strong to match hers and we would connect like only we could. I talked with her about our walk on the beach and what we planned for New Year’s Eve. I told her that we were going to eat all the traditional foods and John joined in saying that he never knew about the foods that we grew up eating on New Year’s Day…Granny and I laughed when I told her that I had trained him up in the Lake City ways. Then Granny said, “Me and Papa got smart and let Cracker Barrel do all the work for us”…So of course I said that was a smart move and I’d be doing that next year….
Then, as always, she asked if we were having church service that Wednesday. We shared that we were not having a service, as Pastor was letting families spend the day together…and then she said it, a phrase that has shifted everything in my life…
“Well, there was a family before there was a church.”
She said this not to prove any point, but said it in an effortless, lighthearted kind of way…
She knew the importance of gathering together. This was a woman who spent the majority of her life dedicated to the ministry. She was the definition of faithful. She would show up every time the doors of the church were open and then some…and when she was not in the church, her home was a safe haven for many. She (unintentionally) was reminding us that before there was an establishment, there was a family unit…and true ministry starts there. If this woman only knew how much of my everyday is molded by the unintentional wisdom she spoke into my life…by her actions and sometimes by her words.
In this time where we are all forced to slow down, go home, and spend time with our families (maybe more than we ever have)…remember, there was a family first. My prayer is that we would all experience unexpected healing and wholeness through this unexpected time of togetherness.
Summer in November 