Love Feast

It’s been nearly fifteen years since I participated in a Love Feast – a time of foot washing, eating of the Lord’s Supper, and communion with my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I wasn’t sure how much of it would come back to me last evening, but it was just like riding a bicycle . . . but far sweeter.

* the sound of the old hymns with just our voices reverberating off the walls
* the humility of washing another’s feet and the love and thankfulness for that person that such an act generates
* the even greater humility of having an elderly sister struggling to get on her knees so that she can wash your feet
* watching my brothers in the Lord across the aisle embracing each other after serving one another in this way
* hearing an elderly man who can barely speak because of a stroke be able to clearly say to the one next to him: “This bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ.”
* the comforting taste of lamb, sop and unleavened bread
* watching a brother lean over and tenderly wipe the face of his elderly father
* hearing the whispered encouragement from one sister to another who was struggling with the fact that this was the first Love Feast without her husband who’s gone Home
* the hug from a friend who told me she loved me and was so glad I was back
* missing my mother-in-law who couldn’t attend but always sat next to me when I was a young bride
* the refrain from a Michael Card song sung earlier that morning running through my mind: “Day after day, we must take up the basin and the towel.”
* the laughter and fun of cleaning up together afterwards
* the intimacy that such a time brings to the Body of Christ

It’s good to be back.