Sharing Communion, Words of my Heart, Texas Artist Laurie Pace

Change at church yesterday.  That is the one predictable thing about Pastor Jack, he believes in change; in teaching, learning from others and running toward the things we avoid from fear or regrets. He has that gift of bringing out the best in everyone and making each of us feel connected with the Father.


We had a quiet, meditative, gentle service yesterday with guitar, piano and new music and songs for our old minds to stretch around.  The best part for me was the prayer and as Jack put it, the bookends to our prayers with music.   Hear our Prayer Lord.

Jack ask us to reflect on communion and at what point in our lives had it happened that it struck a chord of being really special. Terry and I were on the same memory.  First United Methodist Church in Justin, Texas, with Pastor Keith Couples.  Wednesday night family dinners at church.  Keith always prepared dinner for the whole church that came. EVERY Wednesday night. He would spend most of Wednesday after morning bible study with prep and cooking for feeding us, the whole congregation, and it always included some scrumptious desserts.

After we ate and the choir broke off for practice and some of the youth volunteered to clean the dishes and kitchen, Keith would pull a freshly baked loaf of bread from the kitchen and some grape juice and head for the sanctuary. A trail of ten of us would file into the church sitting on the front two rows. The intimacy of those small services stays with me to this day. Keith would share a short homily (lesson) and then together we came to the altar 'table' to share communion.  


As Terry and I left church yesterday morning,... the light bulb went off.  Communion is 'sharing'.  Communion as Jack mentioned is not a solitary LONE thing we do.  In Latin,  communion is 'sharing in common' and in Greek it is translated as 'fellowship'.  So the Wednesday night dinners were truly the coming together of families in our town, to be served and feed by our pastor, sharing his gift of cooking for us.  The 'sharing' of bread and wine at the altar brought a small group of us even closer with the intimacy that existed between us and God.


Again, reflecting back to that favorite word of mine: IN TO ME SEE... intimacy.
Isn't that what God gives us the opportunity to be intimate with Him by sharing the communion? He basically says, "In to me see.. "


"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies." John 11:25


Words of my heart, Laurie
A Texas Artist, Laurie Pace