From Jess Speropulos,
Associate Youth Minister
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“Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”
- Mother Theresa
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As many of you may know, the girls and I spent the first three weeks of the stay at home order, away at my in-law’s farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in East Tennessee. The farm is one of my favorite places in the world. I love the space and the freedom. I love waking up and immediately seeing the mountains I grew up in. I love seeing the girls hop along after their “Pops” to feed the sheep and then ask their “Gigi” if they can collect more eggs from the hen house. It feels like rest at the farm.
However, this year, as all of us are experiencing, has been different. The girls and I arrived at the farm after a strange road trip which included only one pit stop and lots of Lysol. We came to the farm not knowing how long we would be there and when we would be with Peter again. The world felt dangerous and strange, and I was longing for rest and peace that wouldn’t come. God, as always, had a plan though, and would use my kids as teachers over the next few weeks.
I am not, by nature, a cat person. I have a bit of an allergy, and they just never appealed to me. Lucy, however, loves cats, and it was her Spring Break goal to make one of the farm cats love her. There are four cats on the farm. Three are feisty, young, tuxedo cats with lots of personality. The fourth is this scraggly, older, skittish, white cat (whose name is literally White Cat) missing the tops of her ears from skin cancer. This is the cat that Lucy was determined to love.
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Every day she would wake up. Take her breakfast on the front porch and talk to White Cat. She would inch a bit closer, and the cat would scamper off. This same pattern happened day after day, but Lucy never gave up. She would come inside while I was making my coffee and trying to sneak a bit of the news and exclaim, “I got closer this time!” Every inch was a small victory. One morning, I realized that I had completed my coffee ritual without interruption, and I wondered where Lucy was. I went outside to investigate, and there she was quietly sitting on the edge of a chair, stroking White Cat’s fur. She had never been prouder in her life. In that moment, watching my girl in her too-short unicorn pajamas with that cat, I was reminded of Tish Harrison Warren’s words in her book
Liturgy of the Ordinary
: “Ordinary love, anonymous and unnoticed as it is, is the substance of peace on earth, the currency of God’s grace in our daily life.”
We have walked through Holy Week and basked in the joy and celebration of God’s extraordinary love as shown through Jesus’s death and resurrection. God’s love is big and extravagant, but often, he meets us in small ways. The pandemic has made us scraggly and skittish, and we need a gentle touch. Where is God meeting us, you, and me, with perfect love? And where can we meet each other in a similar way —drawing from what he offers us? Most of us are at home, trying to love our families and friends with our ordinary and imperfect love; feeling weary and worn out and wondering when this will all be over. But, perhaps, this is an opportunity to lean into the extraordinary love of Jesus. Perhaps this is an opportunity to allow His love to guide us in our ordinary, day to day loves: doing small things with great love.
Jess
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- Be on the look out for a phone call from Church Receptionist Becky Arthur or other staff members, as we update our Realm directory.
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