Whispers of the Spirit

by Anne Apple

Gather Up

Children have an amusing way of piercing daily life with seemingly simple comments. These comments become deeply profound when we take the time to let them settle in to our imaginations. One young friend of mine, Aidan, two years old, said to God at bedtime prayer, "Thank you God for Mercy who came to our table tonight." Thinking about it later, Aidan's mom shared, "All we did was have a family meal." However, one young soul knew abundant mercy in a mealtime moment with family and had the wisdom to utter thanks before God.

Our youngest child, Abigail, attends school where she plays in the 'Pecan Grove', a shaded playground with worn paths dusty from the children's well practiced patterns of play. With the onset of humidity and summertime heat, the teacher takes a water cooler and small white paper cups outside for the children. Our Abigail took to interpreting the use of the cups and water in a different way.

Instead of quenching her thirst and throwing away the cup, she'd sip a small amount of water then methodically travel the boundaries of the playground on an adventure of sorts. She'd scoop up dirt and plant sticks in her cups. She'd place rocks and clover flowers into these white cup creations and insist on taking them home. With joy, Abigail fiercely protected her growing community of cups that we had brought home over the course of a week. She lined them up on our front porch and at the end of the week, I asked Abigail, "What exactly are these?" and she responded, "Gather ups."

Psalm 107, a pilgrim psalm, begins "O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south." One Triune merciful God gathers us up, all of us sinners whether we're hungry and thirsty; imprisoned and troubled; or sick and at our wits ends. God's hand takes us away, gathers us together as a pilgrim people and in the Christ event, has freed us from the covert messiness of living turned around, rushed and sinful lives. God, offers us new life, full of abundant mercy and steadfast love.

In my deepest imagination I see God at work on creation's playground, with a bit of water and dirt, pulling it all together. God works on the boundaries of land, over foot paths, cradling a new creation. This new creation is lived out in the daily work and life of God's people in the church, through the power of the Holy Spirit. God has this incredible collection of 'gather ups.' God gathers us up and sends us as a pilgrim people, infused with the very breath of life, living and loving for the sake of the world.

Gathered up, as church children, we are all called to repent and to take a gospel message with God, and with one another, into the world, for the sake of the world. Our words and actions with one another and before God and the world reflect the freedom we know in Christ. We are called to return to God in prayer and worship and to give thanks for the mercy and forgiveness known from the font to the table.

So, these days, when I find myself in the company of children, I'm listening with imaginative ears, with a hope born of Christ, sustained by the whisper of the Spirit. When asked to make a defense for the hope that is within me, children lead the way. I confess that the promises that were made for me in baptism, the claim upon my life, are God's promises, strong and sure. I confess that when I hear in the invitation to Christ's table that people will come from east and west and north and south to sit at table together, I remember God's merciful and loving promises. I confess when I come to Christ's table I taste and see God's mercy, forgiveness and enduring love. Gratefully, I am turned around and sent to serve along the well worn footpaths of God's good creation; and with God's steadfast and enduring love, I go serving in God's good gather up.

Anne Apple is Parish Associate at Idlewild Presbyterian Church in Memphis, TN.