- Melinda Eye Cooper
The Church Pew
This old dust covered Church pew brings back many Precious Memories. I sat in one of these pews every Sunday (just about) my entire childhood. I listened to countless sermons and sang hundreds of old hymns sitting in a pew in That Little Old Church that I loved so well.
It was where I Decided To Follow Jesus. It was inside this building I first took part in communion (with real wine and home-baked unleavened bread) and knelt to wash the feet of fellow church members.
It was sitting on one of these pews that I learned about God's Amazing Grace. I'm so very thankful and humbled that God brought me up here... (where my dad was pastor).
Sadly, this church has nearly died out and only a few members remain but they no longer meet at this building. God moved me along many years ago when we moved to Tennessee but I've never stopped loving this little old church. I'd mentioned to my husband and parents that I'd love to have one of the old pews from the church since the building has been sitting empty and unused for years but I really never expected to get one.
We are currently in the final stages of building a house in Tennessee and my husband went to Missouri last weekend to get some barn wood from his grandmother's old barn. We plan to use it to make a barn door for our loft in our new home.
So, my oldest son, Josh and our youngest son, Joseph went with him and they also took in a rally race near our hometown and made a fun weekend of it. I stayed home because the timing was not good for me to be off from work.
They had a great weekend and I was anxious for them to get back home. When they pulled into the driveway hauling a trailer full of barn wood covered with a tarp, I was not surprised. But I was stunned when they pulled the tarp back and there was a pew from my beloved little church in Missouri.
I could NOT believe it! How on Earth did they get one of those pews??
When I heard the story and saw the handwritten note giving them permission to take one of the pews - my heart melted. My husband planned for weeks to bring me a pew home from Missouri without my knowing anything about it. Several people were in on the surprise!
I was tearing up the entire night they returned because of how much effort went into getting the pew for me. I just can't express how it made my heart feel and the precious memories that flooded my soul at the sight of it.
What a treasure!
These days we attend a church in Middle Tennessee that would be considered a "mega church" - Long Hollow Baptist Church. There are no pews... and the building is huge. A very different place from where I came from.
But the church is not a building or a denomination but God's children who meet together to worship Him and to learn more about Him and for Fellowship.
I'm so very thankful for the pew and the Precious Memories it brings to me.
I was glad when they said unto me, "Let us go to the house of the Lord." Psalms 122:1
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