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Snowflakes are frail, but if enough of them get together they can stop traffic. - Vance Havner

Why do I get so choked up at pee wee football games? Haven't I heard the National Anthem 1000 times? Haven't I sung it 100 times? And still, whether it's a recording of Leigh Ann Rimes or the little Smith sisters singing off key, I can't hold back the tears when I hear "o'er the land of the free…" mixed with whooping and hollering and waving pom pons and helmets.

But that's not the only thing that chokes me up at these games. When 8-year-old Tuianna Lopa runs down the field dodging and stiff-arming his attackers with fans screaming and feet stomping, it makes me want to cry. Why in the world is that?

Is it because I care passionately that the Rio Linda Jr. Knights win their game? Maybe. But I don't think so.

Is it because this is the most organized, amazing football I've ever seen played? Of course not. (However, it is astounding what they get out of these little boys.)

Do I cry in nostalgia because my once tiny babies look like little men in their shoulder pads and black jerseys? Hmmm. But still, that's not the reason my eyes well with tears.

There is a spiritual thing happening at these games. It's an underlying wave, a faint swell of emotion. It's the same thing I feel at the Veteran's Day parade or a Memorial Day service at the cemetery. It's a small piece of what I felt during my freshman year of college.

It's community. It's fellowship. It's being joined together in a purpose-- joined together to fight a war, or clean up after September 11th, or even win a Pee Wee football game. People joined together. It's the element that makes a wedding so romantic—not a beautiful bride, but the mystery of complete union between two people.

It's what the church used to look like, and should look like today—"Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe…And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common…Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple… taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart…"

If the church has this same feeling-- this same unity in the common cause of sharing Christ-- then church would be just as exciting as football. The Doxology would be just as moving as the National Anthem.

If the current church had the same oneness and fellowship that the 1st century Church enjoyed, the same would be said of us:
"And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." (Acts 2:42-47)

"Point of Reference" from Fred Price

Called To Brokenness