Seriously Sacred

Last night after dropping the tween/teens at their first semi-formal, I met one of the other mothers to stuff inserts into this Sunday's church bulletin. She and I do most of the marketing for our kid's school and so every 8 weeks or so we get the fun job of showcasing all the great things the children of the school are doing in a one page newsletter and then we stuff 500 of them into the bulletins. I have no idea how I got signed up for this particular job (i.e. big S on my forehead).

We head over to the church about 7:20pm. We thought it would be empty, we forgot about Lent and the whole Stations of the Cross thing. So we decide to hide in the passageway to the choir loft. There was a folding table so we set it up, took the only two seats available and started stuffing. About halfway through the service, the deacon's voice started getting louder and louder. He was going through each Station down the aisle closest to us. He peeked in and then turned off his mic. He came over to us and blessed us each by doing the sign of the cross on our foreheads. He then asked if we needed any prayers. Meanwhile, he is leaning over me, coaxing my arm and repeatedly doing the sign of the cross on my forehead. My friend is just looking at me funny. I say, "No, I'm good, thank you." he looks at my friend and she says, "Yes, please pray for my father" (who is having some health issues). He looks at me again, as he is still blessing me and consoling me. I say, "Sure, please pray for my brother" (dependency issues). He bestows the sign of the cross on my forehead, for the tenth time, and then re-enters the nave of the church and continues with the Stations.

I look at my friend and I said, "That was a little weird." She said, "I am not sure if he was hitting on you or if he really thought something was wrong with you." I asked if there was anything on my forehead, because he either just accosted it, or was really trying to rub something off of it. She then starts cracking up and says, "Oh my Gosh, he really did think something was wrong with you, you ARE sitting in a wheelchair."

There had only been one folding chair and the wheelchair in the hall, so instead of searching for another chair somewhere during the service, I just sat in it. I swear, it could have been one of the funniest things that have ever happened to me. The deacon did come back in later and asked me, "Are you just sitting in that chair, or do you need that chair?" So, he did pick up on the fact that I was a bit perplexed by all of his attention (word of the day).

#stilllaughing #beyondblessed