Beckon

When I was in middle school, I had a vocabulary word that I'll never be able to forget. Beckon. I invision this word like this, this wasn't taught to me- it just what I immediately picture when hearing the term:

If you have a dog in your home that you call from across the house, you clap your hands together, whistle loudly, yell, and those extra weird people get down on their knees waiting for their their pup to sprint into their arms. When my dogs growing up, used to hear their name being called from across the house, they would be so excited they wouldn't be able to to get a grip on the hardwood floors. They would be so thrilled to be acknowledged- they would hardly be able to get anywhere for the first few seconds because they hadn't gotten their bearings yet. They would just immideately start running without regards to their surroundings, what was around them or even what kind of flooring they were on, looking much like this pup. 

This is exactly what God does to us. God beckons us to come sprinting into His arms quickly so we can be loved on. God is doing everything He can to get our attention- and I would love to think that I come running, slipping, sliding, falling trying to get there as quickly as I can without any regards to my surroundings but, I don't. Sometimes, I ignore it. Sometimes I come slowly, sometimes I just don't come at all.

On the flip side, the Church is called to be this large and welcoming beckoning community. We are called to beckon those from the community, beckon one another and beckon those who we may not have seen in a long time. AND most importantly, we are supposed to welcome and beckon all children. It was one of Jesus' most revolutionary and radical lessons in a culture where Children were never acknowledged. Welcome children!? SPEAK to Children?! This is one of Jesus' craziest callings to the Church to include and teach children. We are to be the place and people where people come to be loved and people come to be taught. Remember this as we are still brainstorming about Family Ministries. How do we want our church to beckon others? How are we personally going to respond when God beckons us? Will we step outside of our comfort zone or will we come slowly... or not at all?


Just a reminder that tonight starts Wednesday night dinners!! Bring the Family for fellowship and a delicious meal cooked by our very own Pastor Mickey! Children's programming will begin October 10th with Harvest Fest!