We are instructed not to “give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing.”  Which seems laudable, until I realised today that I drive home from church every week vowing never to go back.

 

The service starts at 5:30pm.  We got there today at about 5:50pm, which is incredibly punctual for us (6:15pm is more our pattern).  I sat down, agreed to move so that R could have a seat too, sat down again, got up to move G away from the water cooler and cups that he had instantly gravitated towards, sat down again, realised there was a nasty smell, picked up G and a nappy, walked to the car (with R in tow who didn’t want to be left behind – E fortunately happy on the lap of one of her favourite people), got the wipes which I had forgotten to take into church, returned to church, walked to the back where there are fewer stones (should’ve had a mat, it was too hot for him on the ground), changed G, took R to the loo – in itself a highly involved operation as she was wearing trousers and it’s a squat loo.  Here’s the process: remove shoes, remove trousers, remove pants, replace shoes, wait – and then afterwards: remove shoes, replace pants, replace trousers, replace shoes.  Having completed all that, I walked back into church, sat down again, stood up to look for G who was nowhere to be seen, found him in the creche room with two friends and a few dusty broken toys, returned to my seat, sat down again, sat for a while listening to the children’s talk, stood up three times during the talk to move G away from the water cooler and cups, took G to creche when the girls went to Sunday School, returned to my seat (he was the only one in creche), showed an interest in the toy he brought me when he came to find me a minute later, followed him round when he asked me to, put him on my lap and looked at a book with him, with one ear on a sermon about Job, followed him round again and ended up in Sunday School with E and R and about 6 others (including the teacher’s child who is same age as G).  Sat down and helped and played and helped supervise when teacher and one child went back into church for communion.  Stopped G drawing on the wall with crayons three times.  Realised teacher’s other two children had made their escape and reunited themselves with mummy.  Returned to seat to get wipe from bag to wipe crayon from wall.  Helped put girls’ shoes on; left.  That was at 7:10pm, and communion was still going on.

 

Still, I was able to listen to a little bit, in church and in Sunday School.  In Sunday School, I heard that the Israelites had grumbled quite a bit in the desert and that had made God feel cross.  So he sent snakes to bite them.

 

Does that mean I shouldn’t have written this?