Opinion : The Old Country Church

A few nights ago, I spent the evening in one of the seats my grandparents and aunts and uncles sat in. I went to a tiny country church about 30 miles from my home.

I never get over how you think your life won't intersect again with certain parts of your past..and then one day 20 or 30 years later, you find yourself back at square one. Somehow, the church I now attend, made a connection with this small church.

I always enjoy the trip to this country church. These little churches are rare to run across and a treat to find. You see the traditional stained glass window and steeple and it gives you a feeling of nostalgia.

When I pulled into the driveway I saw the old country preacher waiting to greet me at the door. I love this old couple ...nearing 70, the two are still pastoring and giving the church all they have.

As I pulled in, I remembered an uncle buried in the little cemetery and gave him a mental, "Hello".

There were many things that went through my mind on my trip there and back. I remember the many, many trips we made to see our grandparents, and trips to Carroll and Jefferson, Iowa to visit my great grandparents.

At our Christmas gatherings, I remember my great grandpa would sit in his wheelchair with a little beanie on his head and my great grandma flitting around the kitchen and making sure everything was set just right before we all crowded into the tiny kitchen to fill our plates.

While sitting around the livingroom and filling the floors through the house, the family would catch up on their lives and families. I remember hearing that one of my second cousins and her husband would be going to work at a church in Alaska, one of my great uncles was a professor at a college in the south, we had a couple pastors, a few elders/deacons, and Sunday School teachers, but the majority of us were church goers, it was something we all had in common.

Sunday night, I remembered the times we'd sit in the same pews, next to my grandparents. I don't remember why we were there, there was probably something special happening...but I remember thinking it was cool to be in church with MY Grandpa and Grandma. I had the same feeling when our kids were little, we had both sets of grandparents attending the same church as we, and I thought then how fortunate our kids were.

Time passes. Grandparents pass. Life changes.

I don't like it.

However, I do like the warm memories that fill me when I sit in those seats, and the warm feeling a little church in the country brings.

So the next time you're driving by, stop in and sit quietly in the pew, see where your memories take you.