Steps

Some time ago I was visiting another church.  The meeting was over and the night was dark for it was getting late.

"There's a woman out there with a child" said an elderly lady who had come back in after starting out for home."

On the steps of the church a woman had been sitting with her young child.  Invited in, we heard her story and prayed to the Lord for her and her family.  It was a story of tragedy, separation, lovelessness and despair.

But she had sat on the steps of a church.  There was no way of her knowing that a meeting had been taking place as, by the time she was there, everyone was in the meeting at the back of the buildings.  Yet she chose a church building over the nearby fast food places - all lit up and welcoming - or the Public House round the corner.  In her despair it had been something to her just to get to the steps of a place where God's people meet and sit there, crying.

It reminded me of the woman in the Gospel who touched the edge of Jesus' clothing. One of the worst mistakes a human being can make - but plenty of even religious people make it - is imagine that there is a lot of preparation required to receive God's response.

Sitting on the steps will do.