Harvest

Elevators are interesting places.

You push the button and start to wait. Somewhere, unseen, gears and wheels are turning and then magically the two strange, handle-less doors slide open.

No wonder kids love elevators so much.

For a few moments, you are suspended in an alternate universe with your brother and sister passengers. Most people try not to look at each other in elevators. Everybody stares at the numbered buttons, waiting for parole.

Occasionally, adventurous folks will greet each other with chipper calls of “hello,” or “hi, howya doin.”

In the few seconds it takes to climb a couple of floors, you can size up another person and speculate about the nature of his or her life experience.

This morning, at the local hospital, a 50’s-ish man in an incredibly well-pressed polo shirt, slacks and shiny shoes entered the elevator just ahead of me. “Must be a preacher,” I thought.

Another man of about my age (like yours truly, obviously in the prime of his youth) arrived at the elevator doors just after me. He was upbeat and seemed dressed for work in his hospital gear.

He smiled and said, “Good Morning fellas.” It was early, so we sort of grunted and mumbled our hellos in reply.

When the doors opened at the second floor, he caught a glimpse of the nurse, working at the main station. He called her name and waved before the doors closed. Seeing him, she looked surprised and excited. She shouted his name back in reply and began to wave. “Good to see you!” she called as we began to whisk up another floor.

He shot me a knowing look that said, “it’s good to be here.” I laughed, pleased for him, even though I didn’t have a clue what we really going on.

We exited together, on the third floor, and immediately a happy reunion scene began to break out around us.

The nurse behind the desk on this floor jumped up and gave my elevator-buddy a bear hug. “What are you doing here?” She said.

I didn’t get to overhear the reply, as I began walking out of earshot toward my destination. Another nurse caught a glimpse of his arrival and sped up her steps. I saw her grin widely and proclaim, “hey everybody, Johnny’s home!”

That’s all I saw. A little window into another person’s life, shared between the first and third floors. And it made me feel good to see these happy people.

Obviously, there was a prior relationship and I was joining the party mid-stream. I was left to imagine their shared past. Perhaps they’d all worked together for years. I imagined inside jokes that they’d shared, office Christmas parties they’d attended together and staff meetings they’d suffered through. I imagined the patients that they’d all worked together to treat. The people that they had lost, and the ones that they’d saved.

Who knows if any of that was even close to right, but it’s what their happy reunion made me imagine.

Something had happened in their past, and that relationship is still alive today.

Last spring, at our house, some pretty green vines began popping their way out of the ground. The pumpkins of fall had been composted with the other leftovers of summer gardening and used around the yard as springtime fertilizer. What was past was supposed to be past, dead and gone…and the resulting organic matter could be used to help the next year’s “crop” find life.

But somewhere along the way, the pumpkin seeds didn’t get the memo. By fall, our mantle was again covered with the beautiful, unexpected little pumpkins that had made themselves known all summer long.

Just this week I noticed some tiny little vines pushing their way through the earth once more.

Spring is always that way, and it’s a wonderful thing. This is the time when seeds need to go into the ground. It’s the time of year when we can really see how the energy of the past continues to propel the future.

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

This very day, we will all plant some seeds. This very day, we are all harvesting the collective crops of days gone by. I hope for all of you that your seeds will return with cheers of celebration, just like they did for my elevator-riding colleague.

Some of those crops are more fun to reap than others.

The most important thing of all is this: Faith in Jesus Christ can change what the future is to be for each of us.

To know forgiveness is to plant forgiveness in the world. To know reconciliation is to be an agent of that reconciliation wherever you are. To experience grace is to become a grace-planter.

What a wonderful harvest those kinds of seeds could one day bring. May it be exactly so.

Grace and Peace,

Adam

LIFE AT SOTH:

This Saturday, the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge of Villa Rica will sponsor a Health Fair for the community at SOTH. Everyone is welcome from 10a.m. until 3 p.m. Make sure to come out and take advantage of the free screenings and all the great information that will be available from the health care providers of our community. Special thanks to Derrick Fountain, SOTH lay leader and master of his Masonic lodge for making this happen.

Summer Lunch Program News: Don’t forget the great summer lunch program that’s about to get underway through a partnership between SOTH and MUST ministries. More info is available from the home page at www.sothumc.net

Our United Methodist Men will be sponsoring a charity Magic Show in support of the lunch program starring SOTH’s own Bill Clary. Bill will perform two shows on May 12^th, 4pm and 7pm.

Thanks to all of you who gave to our special offering in support of this lunch ministry two Sundays ago. SOTH gave over $700 to this special cause. As always, thanks for being a generous bunch of folks.

Building and Land Update: Look for this month’s issue of our newsletter, “The Staff,” which was e-mailed today and will be in the mail to those not on our e-mail list very soon. Also, a .pdf version will be available on the website.