O God, from my youth you have taught me,
    and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
So even to old age and gray hairs,
    O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might to another generation,
    your power to all those to come.
Your righteousness, O God,
    reaches the high heavens.
You who have done great things,
    O God, who is like you?
You who have made me see many troubles and calamities
    will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
    you will bring me up again.
Psalm 71:17-20

Wondrous deeds don’t have to be big, but they always surprise. Little big moments are easily forgotten in the crush of life, but these are the moments we live for.

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When she was 86 years old, a woman sent a notecard to College Church. The notecard read:

“One of your church members gave me a ride to the train station last week. It was a cold and snowy day and with my cane I was not managing the snow-covered sidewalk too well.

“She would not accept any money, so I told her I’d put it in the donation at church.

“This is to say thank you, God bless.”

****
The weather was so bad that there was no visible sun or stars for many days. The people abandoned all hope of being saved. The unrelenting tempest did not end.

It was then that the angel of the Lord appeared to Paul and told him that everyone on the boat with him would not die. It was true. Though the ship itself went to bits in the storm, everyone swam to the beach, where townspeople were ready with food and blankets and help.

(from Acts 27)

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Though the actual site of St. Paul’s shipwreck in Malta is unknown, St. Paul’s Island in St. Paul’s Bay marks the event with a statue dedicated, of course, to St. Paul. The Church of St. Paul’s Shipwreck is one of the oldest Roman Catholic parish churches in Malta and is dedicated to St. Paul’s brief time on the island. Situated in the capital city of Valletta, the church traces its origins to the 1570s. It was designed by Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar and completed in 1582. Today the church building is listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands. (From Atlas Obscura)

Some of those people gathered at the beach to rescue Paul and his shipmates, did they find in the days after that they were the ones who turned out to be rescued? This church, not a building but a people listed in another book that none of us can see.

****
Jesus went to the house of grieving. He had everyone leave the house. The mother and father went into the empty house with Jesus. They went to the silent room, where their 12-year-old daughter was, dead.

Jesus took the girl’s hand. He held her hand in his. Surely the father and mother had to be stricken with a sadness mixed with desperation, hope, unbelief, belief.

“Little girl, I say to you, arise” he said.

Instantly life from death came. Up she stood and walked to her just-grieving, now amazed parents.

“Give her something to eat,” Jesus said. And he charged them to tell no one, that no one should know this.

(from Mark 5)

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Not listed in a register of any kind, a lot of us remember how a summer storm raged and bent our church steeple like it was a Play-Doh church in a Kindergartener’s mischievous hand, the wind rolled up the roof like an area rug, trees and branches broken and bent. How it made the front page of newspapers and ended the nightly news. Remember how the people came the next day to clear away all the debris, the hidden story in the story, people helping people being the church. Send away the others and see the little girl come to life.

****
It was Thursday Communion service, and church was about to start. The newly lit sanctuary was casting the right feeling for the moment, not too dim but not bright as a doctor’s office. The sanctuary was filling up.

One of our former Bible school kids, she would be in second grade now was walking in, holding her dad’s hand. They were headed toward one of the first rows when she happened to look over to where we were sitting. The look of recognition flashed into her face instantly. She smiled at us and waved. We waved back. In the crowd of contemplative faces she had found two old friends and we had found one young friend.

There. That’s a part of communion we often don’t think about, but there it is. That smile of joy. The happiness of relationship. The gift one family shares with another when they allow a child to know the joy of hanging out with us in Kids’ Harbor, and then the joy of remembering learning about Jesus together.
****
Even as we contemplate changes for the better to our buildings and properties, let’s not forget the renovation of our hearts. To know and live the unknowable, the forgettable unforgettable. The gesture, the smile, the bread, truth, life. This is church. We get to live it today. We make the little big moments.

All for Jesus! All for Jesus!
All my days and all my hours;
All for Jesus! All for Jesus!
All my days and all my hours.