Awake

The Big "C"

I experienced a big "C" evening on Monday. "Huh?" you say? Well, some of you are familiar with naming conventions for the word "church". Believe it or not, there's style guide for the Christian subculture. (Official website: unknown. Any takers?) It is generally accepted that lowercase "church" refers to the local church, as in physical location and attenders. So my church (little "c") is Village Baptist Church (big "C" because of proper nounage; but imagine "Village Baptist church", illustrative of my point.) When used in a non-proper noun sense, the word "Church," capitalized, refers to, literally, the Big Church, the whole, global, universal, "we are all brothers and sisters" Church. This is the Church I experienced in a small, but significant way on Monday evening.

Before I experienced The Big "C", I tried out the little one. That was tolerated by the Big "G" (sorry, I couldn't resist) for approximately 16 minutes.

I sent an e-mail to VBC's (Village Baptist church's) classfieds person at 4:31 pm on Monday. The ad I was placing requested a crib mattress. At 4:47 pm, I received e-mail notifcation of Traci's comment indicating that she had a crib mattress that she would be glad to give. (I've seen immediate answers to prayer in my time, but they never cease to amaze me.)

Earlier that day, my friend Stephanie called to cancel our dinner/hang-out time we had scheduled for that evening. (I now had the evening free.) Her sister was coming over to help her price items for her upcoming yard sale. One of the items she said I could have was a toddler bed, which was of course in want of a crib mattress. I called Stephanie back to let her know I would be around her house that evening after all to get the bed, because now I was going to have a crib mattress to go with it.

Called Mom and Dad's house and left a message: Could I borrow the Explorer to transport the bed? Answer was, of course, "yes."

Talking with Traci, she brought up my proposed method for finding out the kids' sizes. (Ruth lives in an apartment complex and in this apartment complex are several other families from Somalia and lots of kids.) She suggested that I bring some clothes with me for them to try on; that would be a better way of determing what would fit. I called Stephanie to relay the idea. I collected the 3 bags of clothes, a kids bed with a mattress, a scale, measuring tape, a clipboard with paper and pen, and the Explorer from Stephanie's, Traci's, and my parents' houses. I was off to Ruth's apartment.

As I was driving from house to house, collecting the generosity of the Big C (Stephanie, Traci, Dale, Martha) to redistribute to a tiny community in need, it started to rain. Six blocks from Stephanie's house, it downpoured. I stopped in front of her house, stopped the car, opened the door: the rain stopped. I walked up the steps to the covered porch, rang the doorbell, and the downpour resumed. When I brought the mattress out, the rain had paused once again.

At Traci's, the same thing: no rain during loading.

On the way to Ruth's, a giant full rainbow filled the sky.

And at Ruth's, the rain stopped just as I arrived.

The combination of the other big "C", the Creator working in and through the Church that evening in small but significant ways put a smile upon my face. I laughed and laughed with joy at the little things that came together that evening.

He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment.

Colossians 1:17, The Message

The thing is, I know Steph and Traci from the little "c", but they don't go there anymore. Now we are connected in more significant way, at the Creator's bidding, as part of the Big C. Combine that with the fact that my relationship with Ruth has nothing to do with a program at little "c" but has everything to do with my membership in the Big C; Monday night truly was a good night for the Church to shine. And all praise goes to the original Big "C", that is the Creator (hey, that's Jesus), for all the good and amazing things came together and were held together that night.

Go Big C.