A Mosaic At My Feet

We walked down the streets of Capitol Hill.
It was pouring rain.
Our son had parked about five blocks away from church.
That is typical on any given Sunday.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church has no parking lot.
Everyone who goes to that church, or visits, must find parking on the street.
Passing all the beautiful brownstones is something I love to do.
However, this day, in the rain, the walk was not as pleasant.

Our son had dropped us off at the corner where the church is located.
I saw the sign where we usually stand for a picture.
Not on this day.
On this day, everyone was dodging puddles and raindrops.

My daughter-in-love sat on the side they usually sit, so our son could find us.
The church is a historic church.
There is seating on the floor and in the balconies.
The church is completely full each Sunday morning with people standing in the back.

Capitol Hill Baptist Church only has one service.
They will never have two services, since the church family needs to stay together.
I looked around at the sea of faces.
The faces represented the Body of Christ; different ages and races, yet united in Christ.

The church service was two hours long, which seemed to go by in the blink of an eye.
Three people were baptized during the service.
To hear their testimonies, telling all that God had done for them, touched me deeply.
It was the testimony of an older woman that hit my heart.

She talked about how she was raised in a Christian home.
She went to church.
She thought she was right with God.
It was not until she really heard the Gospel for the first time, that she realized she was not.

God got a hold of me late in life, she said, and I’m so grateful.
She had heard the Gospel her whole life but she never HEARD it.
She nodded at all the right times and said all the right things.
Yet, the Gospel had never taken root in her heart.

When it finally did, she was cut to the core of her heart.
She knew that she needed to be baptized.
She knew that she needed to stand in front of everyone and tell all that God had done for her.
I could not wait until I saw her go down into the water to be baptized.

Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. (Psalm 66:16)

The two men were first.
The joy in their faces and in the faces of the congregation was palpable.
I saw this older woman come down the steps of the baptismal pool.
She was cautious on the stairs; the pastor took her hand and led her down the steps.

Within minutes, the woman went under the water and was baptized.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
This woman, who thought she was right with God, now knew the joy of salvation.
She came up from the water and hugged the neck of the pastor.

Tears came to my eyes.
God does His work on His timetable.
No matter when God works, it is the perfect time.
We may think that God is late or is taking too long, but God is never late.

The service was over.
Our son asked if we wanted him to get the car or if we wanted to walk the five blocks.
We all had umbrellas, so we walked.
The rain was still falling; the picture in front of the sign would not be possible this day.

As we were walking, the autumn leaves were covering the brick sidewalk.
I was amazed at the magnificent colors.
Bright red, brilliant orange, and golden yellow leaves sprinkled the sidewalk.
The rain on the leaves made them shimmer.

If I was a painter, and not a writer, I would paint what I saw.
The leaves were making a beautiful mosaic at my feet.
I was enthralled by the beauty.
I would have missed this had we not walked in the rain.

My daughter-in-love was in front of me as we walked in single file.
We did not want to take up the entire sidewalk by walking as couples.
Look at these leaves! She said with the same excitement I was experiencing.
I was noticing the same thing, I said, Just beautiful.

The leaves were dead.
They had to fall off the tree to make room for the new leaves that would come in the spring.
The colorful leaves sprinkled the sidewalk with shimmering beauty.
Death making room for life.

The three people who were just baptized had been spiritually dead.
They shared their testimonies, proclaiming what God had done for them.
They went down into the water and came up new, in Christ.
The water itself did not save them; Jesus did, as they trusted in His death and resurrection.

Dead and now alive in Christ.
God gave me an object lesson in the mosaic of the leaves on the sidewalk.
I will never forget the way they looked at my feet.
I will never forget the way the three people looked as they came up from the water.

2 responses to “A Mosaic At My Feet”

1. You have been given a gift to see pictures of salvation where I certainly would not. Thank you for blessing us with your words

   Reply

   • Paula,
     Your words touch my heart but the glory belongs to HIM.
     Blessings,
     Gina

     Reply