Day 16

I Miss Being There

Ps Robert De Martin

A couple of weeks ago, I was driving home with my youngest son Jeremiah (13yo), and we drove past the church. It was four months since he'd been there! Out of the blue, he passionately says to me, "Dad can we go to church and sleepover? I miss being there. I used to live there". 

The next day we popped into the church to grab something, and Jeremiah said to me, "I need to walk around the church. I miss the church. I didn't realise how much."

Loss is a wonderful revealer of value. 

There are many good things that we fail to fully appreciate when we possess them—come to have an incalculable worth to us—when we have lost them.

Was it the building, the bricks and mortar that Jeremiah missed? No, we know that it is you, the church that he missed. He recognised how important coming together, with God in our midst, is.

Matthew 18:21 says, "For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." (NIV)

We so value gathering together as a family of believers. There is something very special and powerful that happens when we praise and worship God together. 

Look how this value is expressed in Psalms:

Ps 84:1a "How lovely is your dwelling place."

Ps 84:2a, "My soul longs, even faints for the courts of the Lord."

Ps 84:4 says, "Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you."

To "dwell" in the house of God—is to love the church and be deeply interested and involved in its worship and work. As we value dwelling together in God's house, we have our strength renewed; we find comfort in our sorrows and light in the darkness. We truly are blessed, and there is nothing else like it in the world!

Together, gathered around God's wonderful presence…there is no better place to be and no better place to share with others.

Ps 84:10a "For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere."

And together, we can then offer hope and help to our community and the nations.

Prayer:

Lord, I want to love your church more. May I be deeply interested and involved in it’s worship and work. May I value the family and community that gathers there and contribute wholeheartedly.
Amen