When there is a storm outside at night, I do not get much sleep.
I know what you are thinking, and I am actually not afraid of the thunder, lightning, and rain, but I do have a big ole dog who absolutely freaks out during storms.
When thunder comes at night, our dog, Kennedy, starts scratching and wants out of his kennel. If he is lying next to our bed, he jumps on us, hoping to wake us up to hold him tight.
There are many storms that I don’t even notice—until my dog starts panicking and jumps on me while I’m sleeping. The only way to calm the dog down is to put my arms around him. While there is no way to rationalize with my dog about the rain, when he is in my arms, he knows he is safe.
Each week, Grace Baptist Church comes together to worship and fellowship with one another. We come from various chaotic scenes in life, in our jobs, schools, and families where we need to be comforted.
It is comforting to know that the God of the universe wants to wrap arms around us and let us know that in the grip of the divine, we are safe.
At Grace, we have been worshiping together for almost a year. As people who love and support one another, we both worship and fellowship, metaphorically wrapping our arms around one another each Sunday morning, sharing with one another the comfort and peace of Christ.
It is neat to experience a church plant who grows in fellowship. Early on in our meetings, we genuinely wanted to fellowship with one another. After almost a year, we are beginning to organically and naturally embrace one another with Christ’s true love. The evolving love for one another is something to truly cherish and enjoy each week.
In January, when we launched, we would “pass the peace of Christ” by shaking a hand, giving a hug, or sharing an embrace. Now our that our fellowship has grown, this has become one of our most celebrated moments: the time we have to look each other in the eye, share an embrace, and pass the peace of Christ embedded to each one of us.
We are thankful for the fellowship we get to experience each week. Fellowship outside of church is becoming more natural and we are beginning to truly live our lives. We are beginning to “love one another deeply” as expressed in 1 Peter 4:8. This type of fellowship is hard to explain. It is authentic, real, and Christian.
When the rain and thunder comes, I know I have a group of people at Grace who will wrap their arms around me, comfort me, and help be the presence of Christ in chaos.
Passing the peace of Christ means something deep and meaningful to me because of our church plant. How will you pass the peace of Christ to someone today?
Kyle Tubbs is the Church Planter and Primary Teaching Pastor at Grace. This post was originally published on the CBF blog.