Chaotic Foreshadowing

Fridays are chaotic at my office.

It's the best type of chaos, really.  People are constantly coming and going out the entrance at the bottom of the stairs.  A group of retired men with thick Dutch accents congregate around the table, eating food, swearing at each other in Dutch, making light jabs at anyone who graces their presence, and laughing loudly.   People from the surrounding community stop by to pick up their food hampers or to pick up baskets of bread.  The parking lot is crowded with huge trucks and motorcycles as recovering addicts find support within their NA community.  Bulletins are being folded, documents are being stuffed in mailboxes.  Finishing touches are being put on Sunday's service, and the organ sings loudly with the music that will be played during that time.

Fridays are chaotic at my office.

I can't help think of the phrase "Winter is Coming."  It's the tagline for both the book and television series "A Song of Fire And Ice: Game of Thrones."  Whenever a character utters those words, you know they are restless for what the future will bring, worried about its trials and its joys, its frustrations and its triumphs.  Of course, in the books, this turn of phrase isn't particularly positive.

But the phrase "Sunday is Coming" has a much truer ring to it.  Fridays are chaotic and loud and boisterous and busy, which could, I suppose, be overwhelming.  To me, though, they speak of what is to come.  They foreshadow the gathering of the community as they come and go through the entrance at the bottom of the stairs.  They foreshadow the group of retired men and women with thick Dutch accents drinking coffee together, smiling as the young children weave their way through the legs of mums, dads, and teenagers standing in conversation.  They foreshadow those from the community who attend our worship service and seek relationship or help afterward.  They foreshadow the parking lot filled with various types of cars which narrate the breadth of our congregational diversity and of our communal spirit.  They foreshadow people checking mailboxes, excited to find a card of encouragement or a report of a missionary they support.  They foreshadow the worship that comes together after much planning, much prayer, and a lot of faith.  They foreshadow the music that swells as  a community of faith joins together in praise.

Fridays are chaotic at my office.

But they foreshadow the beauty that we find with each other each Sunday morning.