As I was reading this morning's Rohr devotional (see link below), I found myself missing the memories stirred by his post!
"Sunday shoes" implied something special back then, a day spent gathering with church family, aunts and uncles, cousins, even bringing a friend home before the Sunday night service.
Often after a homecooked meal, cousins fuss'n over who's turn to sit on the towel that kept your butt warm, showing off by using only one hand in order to, turn the crank handle on a heavily salted homemade ice cream freezer, the ice cream gradually hardening! Next, who gets to lick the wooden churn once removed!
Don't get too dirty playing in the creek cause you gotta go back to church that night. Hopefully the preacher gets you out early enough to get some sleep before school, unless the Spirit moves! Gotta stay awake in class on Monday, hard even on the teacher!
We may not have had all our theology down solid, misaligned at times with today's science, but what we had was real to us, and with signs following!
Hard to see all that fading, sadly followed only by a well scripted one hour, obligatory Sunday gathering, a fast food pickup, then each back to his/her own digital apparatus until Monday comes again!
The good news is that a hunger is growing within the next generation of believers, aching for a new spiritual movement, one that will likely reshape our "how," but hopefully restore our "why!"
A spiritual eclipse happens about every 500 years.