Our Church

My friend, Bill, likes to tell the story of his mother driving past a particular Lutheran Church in our little town.  If he or any of his siblings were riding in the car with her and they happened onto the church, she would point at the church and say, “There is our church.”

This activity started when Bill and his siblings were young children and went on for many years, mind you.  Not until Bill was adult and riding with his mother near the church one day (quite recently) did it occur to him that they had never actually attended a service at the church.  As before, his mother dutifully pointed to the church: “There is our church she said.”

Bill glanced at the church and then turned to at his mother, “But, Mom,” he said, “we have never even been inside that church!”

“But we are Lutherans,” she responded.

He scratched at his head.  “Driving by a Lutheran church and pointing at it does not make us Lutheran.”

“You were raised Lutheran,” she said firmly.

They drove on past their church.

--Mitchell Hegman