When was the last time the beauty of the local church moved you to tears? I’d like to tell you about a woman named Paulette and how our local church became a caring family for her.
Paulette’s Story
Paulette was a member of Christ Community for over seven years, attending the Downtown Campus until she went to be with the Lord on October 27, 2024. She started coming to our church because it was the only one she could walk to. I’m not exaggerating by saying that if it were not for the church family, she would have had no one. She would have died alone, homeless on the street without anyone knowing her name.
Paulette was someone that could have been easily overlooked. She was the person that most of us avoid interacting with in the grocery store or walking down the street. Many would not have taken the time to know her and thus fail to see and experience the beautiful image of God that she was. While she could be difficult to be around because of her many life challenges, she also loved Jesus deeply, had a sense of humor, and loved taking care of cats.
When Paulette began to attend our church, a group of women befriended her and supported her as a team. During the pandemic Paulette had to move from her apartment, and these women rallied Men’s Ministries to help her move into a better apartment.
In August 2021 Paulette fell and needed surgery. These same women helped her make the arrangements to move into an assisted living center because it wasn’t safe for her to live alone anymore. But they didn’t consider their care for her finished. Paulette’s church family continued to visit and each year someone would bring a card to church for all of us to sign for Paulette’s birthday. One year I joined her birthday celebration visit and was delighted to see a gift from a church family member: a scuba-diving cat shower curtain, acknowledging Paulette’s love for cats.
The Local Church Offers Hope
One weekend, Debbie Ross, who was currently leading the support team, let me know Paulette was close to passing away. I drove to the nursing home in Independence to read Scripture and pray for Paulette. When I arrived and let the nurse at the reception desk know I was Paulette’s pastor, her eyes welled up with tears. She told me how much it meant to witness how our church cared so well for Paulette during her three years there. She said so many people end up with no one to visit or care for them and she knew Paulette would have been the same without her church family. The beauty of the support and loving care brought her to tears.
The next day, Debbie emailed the news of Paulette’s death to the pastoral staff and others who cared for Paulette:
As I was sitting in the [worship] service this morning, a new thought came to me. I could see Paulette in heaven, in my mind’s eye, being free and happy and dancing for joy. She had told me how she had wanted to dance when she was young and didn’t get to. Paulette had polio as a child. She wanted to be able to dance and her doctor told her parents that dancing might be helpful to strengthen her legs and feet. Her parents didn’t have the money to do that and rarely supported or encouraged her in the things she wanted to join or be part of. The last 3 years she told me emphatically that one day she was going to walk back into the church, on her own two feet, and people would see what a miracle the Lord had done. That didn’t happen here but I realized she did walk into heaven—fully healed and free from suffering. That’s when I saw the image of her in my mind. She has loved the Lord since she was a young girl. It seemed appropriate that she might express her joy for meeting Him face to face by dancing and smiling.
A Preview of Our Ultimate Hope
In Luke 18:29–30, Jesus spoke of what people give up but also gain to follow him. “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left a house, wife or brothers or sisters, parents or children because of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more at this time, and eternal life in the age to come.”
It has always struck me that Jesus believed those who follow him will participate in a family that makes up for the lack of a biological family “at this time”. He is referencing the spiritual family that his disciples belong to in this lifetime, the local church. I typically think of rewards for following Jesus as things that we receive in the distant future when we leave this earthly world. While that is certainly true and Jesus references the “eternal life in the age to come” that Paulette is experiencing right now, she also experienced a foretaste of that in how she was cared for and loved by her local church. That care and love was so beautiful it moved those witnessing it to tears.
Right now we can experience a preview of our reward for following Jesus through the local church. Our local church, like local churches around the world and throughout history, can be a family to people who otherwise wouldn’t have one. Is this the attitude we have in the places we serve?
Is there a way you and your church community could be a caring family for people who need it? Perhaps you could choose to help someone in a tangible way who typically gets on your nerves. Is there someone who needs to experience a sense of belonging? Invite them to come to church with you.
When we make efforts to draw people in, we are part of God’s kingdom breaking into this broken world. It is a demonstration of the beautiful hope for what is to come when he makes everything right.
