The "Stuff"

While we were at my parents' for Memorial Day weekend, we went to church Sunday morning. The minister was preaching about the book of Acts. One of his illustations was about a man who had been reintroduced to Christianity through reading the bible and who went to a Sunday service at a church and, because he had been reading the book of Acts at the time, was expecting to see miracles happening. When what he witnessed was a regular run-of-the-mill church service he asked the congregation "where's the stuff?!?"

After the service at my parents' church, my mom happened to be heading down to the fellowship hall behind the minister and a visiting District Superintendent and she said to the minister "'the stuff' is downstairs." Assuming she was referring to the coffee, juice, bagels and doughnuts, he nodded and agreed that, yes, it was. My mom again said "'the stuff' is downstairs." Again, he thought she was referring to the coffee and doughnuts. Finally she said to him "no, I mean 'the stuff' is downstairs. My granddaughter is downstairs." Oh. He clearly still had no real idea what my mom was talking about. He doesn't know that Alison shouldn't be able to walk. He hasn't spoken to either of my parents about Alison since before they were leaving for Nashville to be with us when we had the fetal surgery.

I don't know why I was surprised at this. Afterall, I haven't been a member of this church for nearly 10 years. But, my parents have been members for more than 25 years. I wonder if this lack of communication on the minister's part has to do with his having a certain agenda and my parents being part of the contigent who are against this agenda. I would hope not. My parents approach Alison's condition the same way we do. They are more than happy to tell anyone who wants to know anything they want to know about the surgery and how she's doing now. And a lot of the church members have asked. One lady was nearly in tears the first time she saw Alison walking. I guess I just find it strange that in more than two years, this man has never even bothered to ask. If he had, he would have known he had a great example of "the stuff" running around in the cribroom that very morning.