Our Precious Faith

For it was of a year not unlike other years in that of this quaint past of this provincial town there was this church of pews and altars and the prayer bench, and the Sunday school class room - all filled to overflowing.

They were filled with people, whose eyes were filled with tears.

There was gnashing of teeth, and rending of clothes.

There were hugs and pats and warm embrace and handshake, galore.

Shouts of praise filled the halls, a halleluyAh symphony of angelic proportion played on every heart, and together they were a chorus, an army of spiritual praise, of love, of adoration for the divine "He".

At once there was sadness. At once...joy.

Elation filled this palace, and together they would bump heaven's ceiling (would heaven be bound).

Their's was a happiness not of this earth...not of this dirty realm...somehow in their joy, even the firmament, earth itself in its peaty dearth, it too seemed cleansed in their praise, and in His presence.

The pain, that presence, the suffering, that joy - altogether in Love they came, and in the name that is, our precious faith!

And about their lives they would go, filling streets and restaurants and sidewalk cafe's...there they would go about their happy, little lives in this happy little town.

Together they were one, and in the one, they were together.

And this, their precious faith would carry them, through yet another week - driving them, keeping them whole, keeping them together. They would share words, and phrase and even praise all through the live-long week until together again they would gather in and of that precious, precious faith.

Together they were, and how not unlike that gathering on distant shore; the symphony at once is one, and yet composed of so many, many...many souls. The souls of the ages for this moment in time are altogether one in the precious faith.