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As Christians we are usually delighted when someone mentions the word “fellowship”. In my little country church that one simple word can encompass anything from a gathering of just a few friends over a meal, or it can be as loud and boisterous as more than 100 people at a fish fry. Toss in the yearly pot luck meals, finger-food meetings, and a soup supper or two and the gamut has not only been run, it’s been fattened up and forced to accept a larger pant size!
Still, “fellowship” sometimes takes on other facets…..and we don’t recognize that we have actually fellowshipped until long after the fact. Instead of being a fun-filled event, it may be something much more subdued.
Seven years ago our first grandchild, a much wanted and anticipated grandson, was born with multiple internal birth defects. He only lived long enough for us to hold him and tell him how much he was wanted and how deeply we loved him. To say our hearts were broken would be a major understatement. We were crushed.
It was then that the fellowship began. Our hearts were so broken that it seemed they couldn’t beat on their own, so our friends came along beside us and held us, and their hearts beat for us until we were able to function again.
The gathering time was not one of joy, but one of love and sharing. Of empathy and support. Finally we were able to stand on our own, to laugh, to rejoice, and, several months later, to welcome first one then another perfectly healthy grandson into our family circle. Although we will always be lacking one grandson, we are complete for now.
We learned, though, that true fellowship is the ability to allow the friend who laughs with you to also grieve with you. Fellowship like that not only enlarges the waistband, it enlarges Koinonia love God gave us, one for another.
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