Here Comes The Calvary
As my son and I walked down the hill toward the church bright and early this morning I said, “Here comes the calvary!” as 4 or 5 vehicles rolled into the lot. He said, “Wait, that sounds like the revolutionary war, what does that mean again?” I replied, “Well, it means help is arriving just in time.” It made my heart swell with satisfaction as we loaded trucks with tables and chairs, transferring them to the front lawn for our picnic after church. It’s something you can always count on at New Providence, the calvary always comes through. In fact, some of this morning’s calvary couldn’t come to church today or stay after worship for the picnic, but they showed up anyway to lend a hand.
Feeling good about the efficiency for which we set things up, we went inside to prepare for communion. I opened the freezer and to my surprise, there were no communion wafers! I could have sworn we had some cut up in there along with the two pieces for breaking. Either I forgot we were out, or the church mouse got them…. There were plenty of freezer-pops, a few boxes of ice cream sandwiches, and a carrot cake, but no communion bread. I ran to the calvary, bugle blaring, “We have a problem, we have no communion bread!” We debated what to do for a minute or two, and ultimately an elder drove home and took some sourdough out of her freezer, sliced it and brought it back to the church. Crisis averted!
After worship some folks took care of cleaning up communion and closing the sanctuary while most folks went down to the fellowship hall and helped carry out the various potluck dishes, ice, and beverages. With these things you don’t always know if you’ll get a variety of food or three pans of mac and cheese (fine by me) but at New Providence, we always seem to have a perfect balance of loaves and fishes…or meats and dessert dishes! One of our youngest helped me bless the food (I should have let her do it on her own). “God is great, God is good….” We sat in the breeze and gave thanks for the sunshine. The kids ran around playing catch and cornhole. You couldn’t really ask for a better way to start the summer season here. And as things began to wind down, the calvary once again led the charge; chairs began to slowly disappear, and tables were loaded back on a truck to be driven around to the door. Dishes were cleared in the kitchen, the lawn toys put away, lights off, doors locked. One by one, the calvary drove away. But they’ll be back next week.