Silly Seniors

“My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27

Last month some of my friends and I got together for the weekend, while some couldn’t make the get together. Even though a few weren’t there they were still included in most of the stories we retold. Our group has collective experiences, and individual experiences between each other. I know for me personally, if I look at one of them and simply say ‘Mrs. Boykin's boots’ she will fall out laughing. I know for another, if we hear ‘Play that Funky Music’ we immediately break out dancing. We have individual experiences that invoke emotional responses. During our weekend together, we were walking back home in the dark, and someone mentioned the Silly Seniors of our 1979 Senior Talent Show. At that moment, at age 56, the Silly Seniors of '79 walked the dark streets of Folly without apology singing 4 songs that we had sung 34 years go. All these years later it still brought joy to our hearts and a smile to our faces. We have collective relationship as a group, and individual relationships within the group.

This is how God loves it when dealing with His family of sons and daughters. He fellowships with us collectively, but then in His precious manner, He pursues intimacy with us in individual ways. I know that I can think of times in my life when God did something so sweet…so intimate…so God…that only He and I share that memory. A song that brought comfort from another time seeps into my mind…an encouraging phone call from a friend that I knew God initiated. There are some supernatural ways in which God has moved on my behalf that they are too personal to repeat. Without these individual experiences we live on the peripheral of what was meant to be experienced. We were made for intimate fellowship with God. We were made to have those private jokes with God…those intimate moments with Him…those precious nudges from His spirit that lets us know the invisible One is right beside us.

We can’t be satisfied with group mentality when there is so much to gain from our individual walk with God. God esteems our collective involvement with Him, but He longs for our individual fellowship with Him. There is nothing more lonely than feeling like we are outsiders in any group or relationship. God invites us to join the group, and experience the fullness of His family. But He also invites us to get away and share in the fullness of an intimate experience with Him. When we fully understand that we are all equal family members, we will freely fellowship as a member of God’s household.

“Therefore you are no longer outsiders, but you now share citizenship with the saints and you belong to God’s household.” Ephesians 2:19