I had attended a church play a few months back because I was invited by a cousin who had a girl friend in the church. My wife and I met him in the parking lot 1/2 hour before show time and caught up on a lot of lost time. We had met years earlier, I was an infant and he was on his way to foster care, because when he arrived to our home where he had sought refuge, he found there was no room. My dad had a one room apartment and two children. Could he have made room? Maybe. Did he? No. It was a decision that, put into motion for both of them a life of regrets. My cousin had found a family in the US Marines. Having done two tours in Vietnam it left a hard and callous man. I on the other hand grew up in a family where we housed foster children. Maybe it was a way to show what should have been, but was not. I learned to care for those less fortunate, but never quite understood returning them to the hell they came from after a short vacation from it.

At any rate we met up later in life just before my dad past away. My newly found cousin, I was not about to pass up a reunion with. We talked in the parking lot of the church so he could smoke. We met a lady that had brought all the animals for the live Nativity scene. She spoke of having to move because the farm she was renting was putting out her and her boy friend. She needed to find a place that she could take all her live stock. A long with her we met several others in the play each having his or her own story of life that exposed a way of life that was clear was not in line with the will of God.

We made our way into the church so we could get good seating. The play was a popular one and drew a full house each time. We sat on a pew that we had all to ourselves and cherished the time to catch up with conversation. The others enjoyed the play. What I had picked out of it, that caught my attention was that each cast member signed everything they did. Each song was signed and every word spoken was signed, so the deaf would know what was being said. It was impressive that all could signed exactly the same way at the same time. I spoke to the director about how it had impressed me they all could sign in sequence. She told me they had practice it over and over again. The young and old alike seemed to perform it flawlessly.

A lot was said in our pew and the play we were there to see, seemed to be over way to soon. We had saw little of it, using our time to catch up.

I arrived home that night, and in my alone time I asked the Lord what was it all about. This cousin now in my life again, and the play, did it bring people to Him? The cast seemed to have such life’s of turmoil. I was not there to judge them, but what I had heard and observed was confusing to say the least. They were all there to serve God in this play, but their lives He seemed to have been left out of.

The Holy Spirit began to reveal to me. We have it all wrong. When we believe that we only serve God in a church. It is only there that we do our best to get it right. We take our parts in a play and given the script and direction we can follow it and it all happens just as it is suppose to. And thinking God is only in the buiding made with mans hands, we leave Him there and our choices made in life outside the church we leave God out of. It is then the turmoil begins and we blame God, “It must be His will.” We say. We learn how to be perfect Christians in church and do not even wave to our neighbors on our way to and from. We dress the part and our habits, the ones we think are bad, we leave outside. Is what the church teaching us, we can escape the presence of God? And when we are in His presence we can play act and bring people to Him.

In that church that night on that pew we reunited and spoke of regrets in the past. Regrets that we would have to give to God in His Sons name, because we knew there was no going back to fix them. There was no play acting on that pew, it was parts in life we knew we had to play if things were going to ever be right. The will of God played out, for real, without the acting.

Thank you God in your Sons name for the time to see your will play out in our lives.

Play acting is proof we can get it right when we think it matters to God.

We just need to know, to God, we all matter, not just when inside the church doors.