Things are not always the way they appear

Our custodians that come in Saturday evening just left. I think only one person gets paid for the job, but they make it a family affair. They come in, polish the doorhandles, touch up all the highly visible areas, clean the toilets, take out the garbage so that everything looks just so on Sunday mornings.

Few people know what they do. Fewer people know the heart they put into it.

The family does not necessarily fit in the mold of our church. They live in an old house outside of town. The house is extremely messy at times. There are monkey bars in the living room (or maybe the bedroom). The whole extended family lives together (GMA, GPA, MOM, DAD, 2 Kids, 2 cousins, aunt), where as the rest of our church would rarely entertain the idea. As a family, they do not always seem to be walking to the same drum beat of folks who live in fancy houses up on the hill or in the suburbs, drive expensive cars, and who always have on suits and ties. Which is part of the reason I like them a lot. I not only like them, I respect them.

I respect them for several reasons. They have very little money, yet they always look for ways to be generous and kind. I stayed with them at the retreat this fall, and the dad goes to his son's bedroom with him and reads the Bible with him EVERY NIGHT. Their child is a teenager, and still looks forward to that tender, intimate time together.

Yet I wonder.....do most of the people in our church see that depth, autheniticity and love in them? Do most of the people that they spend time with know what truly good, decent people they are? Probably not. Does that seem to matter to them? Not really. They are who they are because well...that is who they are. They see it in one another. Slowly I have come to notice them as well. God sees. Maybe that is all that really matters.