Remembering

Amen Sister Nicole! That was really cool. Thank you for writing that.

The Village Church was the church I attended from 2006 – 2012.

I thought back to the beginning of my time there…I remembered the sanctuary of the Seventh Day Adventist church, the colors beige, red, brown and a kind of light purplish hue, the carpeted steps that I had to walk up to get there, the sound of creaky wood. I remembered the warm greetings I received from many members during the passing of the peace. Peter’s smile and colorful outfits. Karen’s joyful bobbing up and down. Sam’s cadence. I also remembered myself, so much younger and so happy to be in this new and interesting place called New York. And, on a day not unlike today, sitting in a Washington Square Park that was full of sun and spring, I remembered writing down in my journal: “I never want to leave this place.”

But, as some of you know, I did end up having to leave that place. And, as I write this, I think about how “this place” has now become “that place” and the person I was is not the same person I have become, and how many things I experienced and identified myself while in New York have now all slid into the past tense.

But for me, I also think that it’s beginning to be OK. Because it is reminding me that it’s not the changing things that I need to hold on to, but to Him that stays the same.

So today, though both sunny and springtime, is not the same day I wrote about in my journal those six years ago. Today is a new day, a different day. Today is a glorious day! Today is the day our Lord hath made. Today, I will try to hold on more loosely to the things that change, and more tightly to the things that do not.

Dear Village Church, may we all put our hope in the one, true, eternal God, whose Word does not, cannot, and will not change or pass away. Ever.

God Bless,

Ryan