Amy, who's gearing up for a major writers' conference AND writing for Crosswalk, is taking a brief break from her e~DUSC feature, and so we'll republish some of her award-winning pieces over the next few weeks. Here's the 2008 Polly Bond Award of Merit–winner for "Devotional / Inspirational Writing." The Polly Bond Awards are given annually by the national Episcopal Communicators organization for "special achievement in church communications." Amy's won several!!
Amy Sander Montanez is a writer, teacher, therapist, retreat leader, and spiritual director who attends Trinity Cathedral, Columbia.
In the Moment—One Pilgrim's Attempt to Be Present
By Amy Sander Montanez, D. Min.
Love with wild abandon
The children came back into the sanctuary from children’s church on Sunday. I think it is called the “Gospel Experience.” Most of the kids ages 3-7 or so leave before the lectionary readings for the day and come back right before Holy Communion.
They process (parade?) down the center aisle, one or two of them proudly carrying a kid-size wooden cross and the rest straggling behind, holding the art work or craft they made that day, looking for the familiar face of mom or dad, sometimes of a grandmother or grandfather. Parents wave at them in order to say, “Here I am, honey”. Sometimes a parent steps from the pew and whispers the beloved’s name, and some parents come to the front of the church so as to be easily seen for the few children who are still a bit anxious about leaving them. It’s all done fairly quietly with lots of decorum, the organ usually humming some benign, unrecognizable tune in the background, and the rest of us stand, watch and smile as the little ones, very unselfconsciously, find their way back to their families.
And then there’s the one, there’s usually one, who’s searching the crowd for the face that will mean “I’m home,” and when they find it they yell with total abandon, “MAMA!!!” and they break into a run and leap into the arms of the waiting one. It always catches the rest of us up into a repressed laugh, a few “ah’s” and some big smiles. This past Sunday there was “the one” and then later after communion, there was another. Returning with her parents from the rail, she spotted a familiar face up in the balcony, and from across the church shouted, “I see you, MeeMa!” and jumped up and down and waved.
Hooray for the kids who are willing to love and cherish with that kind of abandon. I feel it, that kind of wild happiness, when I see a loved one I haven’t seen in a while, especially one I am anticipating. When my daughter comes home from college, my whole body is awaiting the sound of her car in the driveway. I am usually keeping watch, and after I shout, “Maria’s home” I rush outside for the first of many hugs. It’s usually a longer hug, and it is always sweet. I even feel that way with friends who I’ve been missing and am happily anticipating seeing. I have a friend in Canada whom I don’t see often, but whom I love to call. If her husband answers the phone, his greeting always makes me smile and even giggle, because he always says, “AMY!!!” like I’ve just made his day by calling.
When we love each other like this, when we call each other’s names and welcome each other with wild abandon, we are, I believe, replicating the kingdom of God. Can you imagine God seeing you from a distance and calling out your name with utter joy, perhaps even waving at you to let you know you’re in the right place? I believe that happens. Now, flip the coin for a moment. Do you call out God’s name, “O HOLY ONE!!!”, with abandon when you get a glimpse of the Divine? When you shut your eyes to pray, or stop to watch a sunset, or eat something scrumptious, or are surprised by some amazing grace in your life, do you call out, “BLESSED GOD!”? Do you love God with enough wild abandon that when you are in creation, hearing the whoosh of a dolphin surface or seeing a rabbit’s nose twitch or silently watching your child sleep, you can say, either silently or aloud, “Surely you, God, are in this place” ?
Hooray for the children, who remind us of the exuberance of God’s love. May we never “shush” them, but rather emulate the way they love with wild abandon!
©Copyright Amy Sander Montanez, 2007