This past week, I finally got around to actually setting up my office. I’m excited to say it’s almost there — some art on the walls, some books on the shelves, and some plants on the window. Nick and I brainstormed on the best placement of the couch, and settled on the wall facing West.
Of course it’s fun to think about how I want to design my office space, but it was more than that. I was thinking of you all, and making a space that would be hospitable for people to enter into.
Even though I am the newest staff member, I was not the only one thinking about spaces. Bryn was putting art from the children’s formation curriculum, StoryMakers, up on her bulletin board. I heard the noises of chairs moving around in the Upper Parish Hall as Jeremy was preparing a space for Choristers. Nick was excited about getting a table in his office to create a more collaborative environment for meetings. Brian was the one who actually put together my couch. And Kathryn was moving here and there making sure everything was set for Sunday.
It was fun to be a part of a team that was all thinking about preparing spaces… for you.
With the literal moving of furniture or the brainstorming about the upcoming program year, it was all about creating spaces for community to gather and deepen connections.
There’s the you we know and the you that all of us have yet to meet. Who are we preparing these spaces for? What will be happening? We don’t fully know, but what we can do, is set the space. To keep setting tables, and getting some extra chairs just in case. Is this not what it means to follow Christ? To examine the literal spaces in front of us and the spaces in our hearts in order to make more and more room.
Speaking of the books on my shelves, one of them is entitled “To Believe in God” with words by Joseph Pintauro and art by one of my all time favorite artists, Corita Kent. I was skimming through the book the other day, and these words stopped me in my tracks and brought some tears to my eyes. It says this, “To believe in God is to drink wine, it is to eat bread, not by yourself.”
Not by yourself.
Isn’t this the point of all of this? That being a part of a church community is that we do not have to do this thing called life on our own. Together, we make room for each other. For the joy and grief, the hope and discouragement, the coming together and the being sent out. Perhaps the next time you come up to receive Eucharist, take a look to your right and to your left; these are the people you get to journey alongside. In the community of God, you are not alone. Let’s keep showing up, setting tables, and making spaces for all to be welcomed.
With gratitude,
Janelle
