Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I never knew when it was going to happen. We could be standing in a check-out line at the grocery, or visiting a doctor, or ordering food at a restaurant, and my mom would look right at the clerk/doctor/waitress and say,

“A few years ago I learned a new ending to that old prayer, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep…’”

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

“Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. Thy LOVE be with me through the night, and bless me with the morning light. Isn’t that lovely? Isn’t that better than the other way?”

Then she would smile. Her 90+ years would melt away as her shining eyes beamed joyfully into the eyes of the listener. And the listener would be completely disarmed. Sometimes moved to tears. Always smiling back.

It was my Mom’s ministry. A sweet little evangelical message sent via a bent-over angel using a walker.

I’ve never tried carrying on my mom’s tradition. I just can’t imagine doing it. It’s easier to use the excuse that she only got away with it because she was a little old lady.

Yet I’ve also wondered how many of those people thought about God after the encounter. There was no time for an argument about God’s existence, no room for bristling at the political incorrectness of bringing up religion where it didn’t belong. God was just there, looking right into their eyes.

It begs the question: How do I share Jesus? How do I tell complete strangers that He lives in my heart and I pray to God in faith?

My mom had her way. I need to find mine. How about you?

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