Sacred Altar
Growing up in a Christian family, Sunday is church day.
I watched my parents getting very excited every Sunday, woke up at 4 AM, got themselves and the kids ready, picked up friends who had no rides, packed up the car and arrived at church by 6 AM for the first service. My parents would join two services on Sunday, a children’s service on Tuesday, a Bible Study on Wednesday, a prayer meeting on Friday. For us, the children, we pretty much grew up in church and ministry. We spent hours after services waiting for my parents to be done with meetings or gatherings.
My late husband and I, we met at church and our own little family grew up in church. My children also spent days and hours at church. “Can we go now?” was a regular phrase on Sunday, because there’s always so-and-so who needed to talk or something needed to be taken care of after church.
Sunday is always church day for us, wherever we are, in town, out of town, travelling & vacationing. Finding a local church and joining the Sunday Service is always in the itinerary.
Here in Indonesia, March 22, 2020 was the first day when almost all churches moved their services online. It was a week after the shelter-in-place started. That Sunday, we gathered in the living room, turned on the TV, and joined the service imagining as if we were in the church hall, singing together with hundreds of people, giving high fives to our neighbour, exchanging hellos, smiles and hugs to whoever we wanted to.
Everything was still raw. Our minds were confused and filled with millions different thoughts. Our hearts were heavy. But for 60 minutes, we were able to breathe.
Sheltered in the presence of the King, tears started to roll down, finally our souls were able to rest and voice out our fear.
Our home has turned into a sacred altar.
we take our masks off
we let go of our guards
we let the tears roll down
we are not afraid to be seen
we hold nothing back
we express our hearts
we shout like nobody was around
we pray louder than before
we break the bread and drink from the cup
we remind ourselves of Who He is
we remember that He remembers
we exalt the only One who's worthy of our affection & attention
In the living room, the sacred altar
we are transformed as one body of Christ
There Abraham built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord,
and he worshiped the Lord.
Genesis 12:8
Friends, the season the whole world is currently in, may not be the most ideal. For many of us, this can be the hardest season by far. We might have lost so much along the way, we lost our loved ones, our dreams were shattered, our plans were cancelled. We are losing strength, we are losing hope. But I still believe that our God is bigger than this. His greatness is turning what it's meant to harm us into something good.
Friends, I encourage you to stay and lean in. Stay in God. Stay with God. Find your sacred place. Build an altar. The King is here, He is for us and never against us. Let's do whatever we can to remember that He remembers.
May sacred altars be built in homes all over the world.
With love,
Felecia
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