Standing in the Flow of Love

This past weekend, instead of meeting at church, we divided up into small groups to share breakfast together. Thank you to all of you who took the risk of hosting, and thank you to all of you who took the risk of being gathered.

We all long for connection and community, don’t we? We long for friendships that will celebrate the good times with us and be a container for the hard times. To fulfill these longings, however, we have to take that risk of stepping near to one another, laying down our defences, and being open to giving and receiving love.

This weekend, we had a service of remembrance for my mom. One of the things that I noticed about my mom in the weeks leading up to the service is how she chose—in simple, ordinary ways—to place herself within the flow of love, giving and receiving. My mom and dad moved to Lynden to be near us 14 years ago. It is not an easy thing to begin over again in a new community at 76 years of age. When they landed, they began to go to the church across the street and took the risk of joining groups in the community. 

Now, Lynden is the kind of place where people have grown up together and  known one other for their whole lives. They don’t need any new friends. They have plenty. When my mom joined a Friday morning women’s coffee group, the women in this coffee group opened their circle and welcomed my mom in. When my mom joined the Wednesday Bible Study, they welcomed her in. When my parents joined a book club, they welcomed them in. Consistently, whenever my parents took the risk of joining, they were warmly welcomed. Over the last 14 years, they have formed deep friendships in this community.

One of the moving things for me throughout the last few months is seeing the way these Lynden friends cared for my mom and dad in such practical, proactive ways. I told you about the banana “manna” — the many loaves of banana bread that began to arrive at my parents’ house when my mom was in home hospice. Well, the bounty continued…

The night of my mom’s memorial service, her friends organized a meal for our whole family and delivered it to our house—pulled pork sandwiches, coleslaw, baked beans, salads, chocolate cake and rhubarb pies. Over the weekend, my dad’s friend came by and volunteered to be his lawn mowing buddy, spelling him off whenever it got too much.

Yesterday, one of my mom’s friends stopped by and said they wanted to rebuild my dad’s deck, sorely in need of repair, while he is away at my sister’s in Virginia so when he comes home they can put my mom’s geraniums out on it and have visits with him. She brought over tex samples so he could choose the colour and said that an anonymous circle of friends were going to cover the cost.

I am humbled by their kindness. I have much to learn from this community on what it means to stand in the flow of love.

We got to stand in the flow of love as well! Many of you made cookies for my mom’s memorial service. My mom was known as “the cookie lady” of Sterling College for serving cookies to students in her home. My idea was to have a “Cookie Station” in her honour, at which people could make a snack bag of cookies for unhoused people living at Lighthouse Mission Ministries in Bellingham. They were delivered later that day, and there was just the exact amount for the whole floor of men and women. No one was left out of the bounty! They were delighted to be drawn into celebrating Shirley. Thank you so much to those of you had a little extra margin last week and baked those for cookies.

And the good news is we have more opportunities right now to stand in the flow of love with one another. There are families in need of feeding (see the Take them a Meal links below). There are new people to welcome into our circles. There are kids in need of warm hellos on a Sunday morning. There are little acts of service to be done on our volunteer teams. There are people each Sunday in need of a hug and a prayer. 

While we cannot help but notice the presence of corruption, greed, and abuse of power in the world, we can take time to notice the presence of compassion, generosity, and abundant love in the world around us as well. 

I look forward to standing in the flow of love with you as we journey together towards Holy Week and Easter.

Warmly,

Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, Southpoint Church