Oh how very wonderful...
(To be read entirely & completely without sarcasm)


oh how very wonderful!
alleluia again and again
and how magnificent
that herein may we gather all
upon the sacred ground
in this holy house beneficent!
hush now as age cracked fingers
wrest creaking thunder from time stained yellow ivory keys,
blushing girls and grey-haired maiden saints
lift their warbling voices for the Lord to praise!
hearken now the preacher speaks
and in well rehearsed throaty tones
he warns against the havoc pleasure wreaks -
blank faced stares -
and surreptitious repentant tears -
who is this stranger in our midst?
aye, they are so wonderful!
alleluia!
so magnificent
gathering before God beneficent -
good and bad, the young, the old;
wise and fools, they hear His call -
oh, they are so wonderful -
the Lord God loves them all.



I wrote this after attending church... I am far from home - from anyplace I could even vaguely call a home - not only geographically, but also emotionally, spiritually.
I visited this church and sat in the back. It was a typical Protestant church, like a hundred thousand others in the US... just a small band of worshippers...maybe 50 at best. They and the church building were old, mostly. A few "nesting stage families" intermixed in a sea of gray. One could tell, there had been a "hey day" for this place... a long time ago, but not now.
The organist was your proverbial "sweet old lady church organist" and played accordingly, and the preacher... well, a hired man who clearly practiced his oration. Open a dictionary to the word "preacher" -- one might have found his picture.
And then there was the choir. Mostly old ladies and a few demure young girls on the verge of blossoming into blushing womanhood. Warbling and untrained, and perhaps not as enthusiastic as the evangelical text they were singing might dictate...
They were shy and reserved. One or two welcomed me. But mostly they just wondered... "Oh? A visitor? How odd!"
Next to me there was an older lady who couldn't stop crying. And a few folks looked as if they had as the song says, "Someplace that [they'd] rather be..."
But they are/were wonderful. For God did not create people to be perfect... He created them because He loved them. Oh, I know the theology - He made Man perfect, and man fell into sin... And I suppose that is true... But now - here - today - God continues to give life to all kinds of people - He must believe they are wonderful, even if they are less than perfect. If they are good enough for Him, they needs be good enough for me.