Then is not now...

This is a photo of a Sunday School in the mid 1950's.
Sad thing many of these children
are no longer in church.

They grew up and left the church.

Irony at it's best:
We still meet in the same buildings
these children once filled.
Sadly many of the rooms look exactly the same.
I suppose this is human nature.
We have a hard time letting go.
I recall watching a movie
about a child who dies
and the mother made sure not one
thing in the child's bedroom changed.

Twenty, thirty, forty years pass
and
many of us feverishly keep
the rooms in our church
the same...

hoping all the while those children
who once filled the rooms
will
come back.

They haven't. They most likely won't.

Yet, other children have come,
in numbers not as large.

They come, though we continue to grieve for days gone by,
for all those children.....
who....
if they had stayed would now be Sunday School teachers.

But they left the church.
In their absence....
we have few who desire to teach....
they don't have time.

Family time, school time, my time.
Not enough time for Sunday School.
Not enough time to teach.

Is this the end?
Are we failures?
Those of us who did not leave the church.

I choose to not believe this.
I choose to believe we have the time,
and the imagination
to nurture and teach our children
in ways that will last, in ways that will inspire
them to stay in the church.

I choose to believe this.
I choose to believe...
I choose....