 |
| Mayport Presbyterian Church, c. 1914 |
What if you're the only one? You see that short, smartly dressed chap in the back row of the Mayport Presbyterian Church congregation? That's my great-grandpa, Robert Emmett Singleton. I never met him. My mom said I was a babe in the womb when he died of Alzheimer's. Back then, you didn't send your loved ones to an old folks home. You kept them in your home until their time came to cross the bar. Mom used to visit him and play checkers, one of the few things he could remember.
As I was saying, what if you're the only one? In his case, he was a small man with a big heart. With racial tensions rising within his community, he stood for loving his neighbor and told others to do likewise. That's another thing my mom remembers about him. He told her stories about directing his kith and kin to treat his black neighbors with love and respect. I think I would have loved to spend time playing checkers with him, just like my mom, and learn more than the game. People like him went against the grain to smooth over the prickly folks who wanted to make trouble. The peacemakers are few and far between.
 |
| Mayport Presbyterian Church, c. 2023 |
 |
| Mayport Lighthouse |
 |
| Mayport shrimp trawler at Singleton's Seafood Shack |
My beloved great-grandpa, who I hope to meet one day on God's heavenly shore, made an impression on me through his simple life story. His legacy has lasted by his love. I hope the stories that I leave behind teach others to love with a tender strength.
Have you ever been in a place where you feel like you neither belong nor are welcome? This should not be so in the church. The church is a place where you can find belonging and experience hospitality. For me, the church has been my family, my brothers and sisters, older and younger. Has there always been peace? Even nowadays, we're overly arrogant, easily offended, and anxiously territorial. I'll be frank. On this side of heaven, with normal sinners, proverbial fools, and downright wicked folks arrayed in faux sheepskin attire, there can't be perfect peace until Jesus makes all the sad things come untrue.
Look at Jesus, when He died on the cross for the world's sins. The sky turned black, the earth shook, the temple veil to the holy of holies split in two. That doesn't sound peaceful. Yet, Jesus was making peace for the whole world by His sacrifice.
If I gaze at Him, and cast my cares like a fish net into the shining waters, He will provide His perfect peace and tender strength, so I can be a peacemaker like Him. Because I can't do it on my own. I need Him. We all do.
Now, if Jesus could carry the sins of the whole world on his shoulders, then He can help me carry my comparatively small burden, whatever it may be.
"He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body. the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross" (Colossians 1: 17-20)
No comments:
Post a Comment