Drawing Pictures in Church

I remember it vividly—sitting next to my older brother in the large church we went to every Sunday, the two of us drawing little pictures around the borders of our church bulletins and on the blank page that was intended for note taking. Are you imagining little sketches of birds and trees and Bible characters illustrating the sermon?  That would have been fitting, but no, that’s not the kind of thing we drew. On my brother’s bulletin you might have found a hideous face that looked like a gargoyle with its tongue sticking out and little wavy lines implying that this character must smell awful. It was labeled, “YOU” with an arrow pointing in my direction. And on my bulletin you would have found an equally ridiculous drawing, usually of someone with enormous feet (sometimes I drew them to look like boats) and it was also labeled, “YOU” but with the arrow pointing in my brother’s direction. 

Little kids are funny, aren’t they? But I’ll be honest, my brother and I weren’t little at the time we drew those pictures. We were teenagers, and I remember my mom lowering her eyebrows at us when our laughing was becoming a distraction. 

Our church was pretty formal and walking into the sanctuary always felt solemn in a good way. I remember one day as we were about to walk through the doors, my brother said, “Ladies first,” and ushered me to go ahead of him. I tried to lag behind, because clearly something was amiss, but I couldn’t because I didn’t want to block the entrance and make a scene. My brother smiled as I passed in front of him and I squinted my eyes at him in response. He followed close behind me, stepping on my heels repeatedly as we walked all the way down the center aisle, following our parents towards the front of the church. I was wearing flats and they kept slipping off. It’s a wonder I didn’t trip. 

It may not surprise you to find that I learned little in church in my younger years. It’s hard to learn anything when you’re not paying attention. But I’ve been told by many people who were paying attention that our pastor was a great teacher and a kind-hearted man. I bet I could have learned a lot from him…

My brother has been making me laugh for my whole life wether inside or outside of church. Do you know anyone like that, who makes you laugh? They’re such a gift from God. I think they reflect a wonderful facet of who God is. 

And though this is slightly off topic, as it doesn’t take place in church, I’m still going to tell you that my brother once mailed a cantaloupe to someone. Not in a box or anything. He wrote the address directly on the melon and put some stamps on it just to see if it would go through the mail that way. It did! The post office has changed a lot since then so I wouldn’t recommend mailing fruit that way anymore, in case you were having a “light bulb” moment just now. 

~Amy