Devotion: Life In Community
Please take a moment and read the scripture from this weekend: Acts 2:46-47
As I reflected on Pastor Sarah’s message from the weekend, a childhood memory came to my mind. I thought about one of my mom’s treasures… her “mite box”. A mite box is a little cardboard box, with a small slit on the top for dropping coins in, sort of like a piggy bank. My mom, as well as each woman in our church, had one of these little boxes sitting somewhere in their home. The women collected coins, put them in their boxes and then brought the filled boxes to their monthly “Ladies Aid” meetings to give for an offering. My moms mite box sat on our kitchen counter next to the junk pile… the place where all the important mail, fliers, bills and school papers piled up. Every once in a while, mom would hand me coins and say, “go put these in the mite box.” Or, if she would see a penny on the sidewalk she would say, “pick that up and put it in the mite box when we get home.”
The Ladies Aid meetings were something that were so important to my mom. She looked forward to going to them, even to the point that I was allowed to come along if I didn’t have school so she wouldn’t have to skip the meeting. I remember carefully holding the mite box on the way to church. And I can see all the little boxes sitting around the table where the women gathered. I was taught that “mites”, the smallest amounts of money, could make a huge impact on someone else’s life if combined with other coins. I knew that these mites, including the very pennies that I picked off the street, were so very important not only to my mom, but also to the greater church. I knew that a penny by itself, could not buy anything. But a penny combined with other pennies could buy a meal for someone who was hungry or help build a house for someone who needed one.
What I was never taught however, and what I didn’t really understand until I was an adult, was why the Ladies Aid meetings were so important to my mom. It was because of the community that those meetings offered her. It was a place for my mom to gather with other women to laugh, talk, eat, complain, reassure, encourage and share. Yes, they did good for their church and the world, but they also built up and leaned on each other.
The women of the Ladies Aid didn’t solve the world‘s problems… maybe they didn’t even solve their family’s problems. But it was enough to have a place to laugh together…to know they weren’t alone… to wipe each other’s tears… to share recipes and parenting advice… to pray for each other. My mom found her community in a small church basement, gathered around a table with women who expressed the same struggles and joys that she did. That community was good and precious to her. That community of church ladies is what she needed. Praise be to God for knowing that community not only blesses individuals, but also a collective group. Praise be to God for bringing us together.
Gracious God,
You know we need to be with others. Help us to build our community here at Sheridan. Guide us to be strong followers of Christ and to love all as you have instructed us to do. Help us to do big things together. Give us open hearts to serve and love. Help us love deeply, grow spiritually and share abundantly.
In the mighty, precious and saving name of Jesus,
Amen
Written by Julie Anderson
Julie Anderson is a member of Sheridan’s Devotion Writing Team. She works as Sheridan’s Children’s Music Coordinator where she is passionate about teaching children to use their musical gifts to praise God.
Julie is married to Scott and counts her greatest honor as being mom to Adrienne, Eliot and Elise.