By Brad Campbell –

Just a thought to help start your week.

This church building once housed a worshiping congregation.  In ages past, it no-doubt hosted preachers, singings, and dinner on the grounds.  Then, years ago, it was locked up tight and the church, at least in name, ceased to exist.  Later, the beautiful stained glass windows were each painstakingly removed and put into storage.  Slowly the wooded areas around that old church building crept closer and closer.  Trees grew taller and more prolific.  Shrubs and weeds took over any space left between the trees.  And before long, only the locals remembered just where the building remained.

Then, a few years ago, a logging company clear cut all of those trees and that once-forgotten church again appeared in plain view.  Travelers of the nearby state highway began to exclaim over it, having never known it was that close.  Many locals had forgotten it was there, and many others said they’d never seen it before, until that steeple suddenly appeared where treetops had been.  I shared a picture of this church building with you at that time.  I, too, had heard of it but had never seen it until then.

Fast forward a few more years now.  The trees are growing back.  The weeds and shrubbery and other undergrowth have quickly reappeared.  The old church building I stepped into and looked around a few years ago doesn’t look safe enough for me to try that again.  I took this picture just a few days ago.  The trees are tall enough now that the old steeple has once again disappeared from easy view of the nearby highway.  I was right in front of it on the little dirt road before I realized how close I’d gotten.  That little old church is very close to being completely forgotten once more.  Soon enough, it will disappear into the woods again, too late for visiting by anyone.

Sadly, there are many people around us in the same shape as that old building.  Yes, some are old, they have battle scars, they’ve faded a bit, and they’re probably even leaning or missing a few parts by now.  But they continue to stand tall by the hardest.  There are others around us who’ve gone unnoticed for so long that they struggle themselves to remember the beauty of their past surroundings and happenings in life.  And then there are those, too, who are remembered, yet no one ever ventures by to even check and see if they’re still around.

One day, for each and every person, there will come a day that this old body of ours has returned to the earth from which it was formed.  But until then, we are commanded to “love our neighbor.”  That certainly includes those who’ve long been forgotten by society as a whole or even by their once-close friends and family members.  They struggle to stand tall, but they feel as abandoned as this old church building.

Check on your neighbors.  We may not see anything but peeling paint and missing windows.  But inside that shell still ring glorious hymns and the Word of God — two things that should never be forgotten.  Time passes too quickly.  Don’t put it off.  Search while they may be found.  The next time you look, it may be too late.