Read below for a guest post from Stef McKeever.
We are a loud family.
When we show up people know it. There is no hiding us. A day in our life may include yelling, “BobGoblin!” (from Nickelodeon’s Wallykazam) with the 4 year old and “GOOOOOAAAAALLLL!” during the 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer games with the almost 20 year old. I’ve even been trying to teach my teenage son with special needs, Evan, to whisper. It comes out as this hilarious, raspy, but still loud voice. Man, I love his effort. And that same man/boy loves to hear the sound of his Crocs shoes slapping an echo across tile floors like tap shoes. The sound brings him such joy.
Don’t get me wrong. I love quiet. I need the quiet. I crave quiet. I am a huge proponent of taking some time away from the noise and recharging, even if it is only a couple of hours. Hearing what God has to say in the silence can be most beneficial. My brother recently did this at a monastery. But I’ve come to accept that it’s just not gonna happen most of the time for us. We are mostly loud.
We are loud where ever we go, even in church. Even in the back rows we are a distraction. Throughout history, church has evolved to become this super, quiet, could-hear-a-pin-drop, kind of place.
Soooo, in walk us.
You can picture the entire impeccably dressed sanctuary turning their heads from their place of somber prayer with annoyed, interrupted looks as we find our place in the back wooden pews. Our every movement echoing throughout the high ceilings of the stained glass-decorated place of worship. Okay, where we go to church is way more relaxed than that. But that is how it can feel when you have a special needs teenager who isn’t cooperating through an hour-long sermon. Not to mention the bathroom breaks, the medical checks — and that’s a good week. Who knows what the pastor was actually preaching about. We are lucky to get through a Sunday with minimal distractions to the rest of the people attending so they will know what is in the sermon content.
The thing I’ve been wondering about is how loud and distracting will it be in Heaven? No one who has actually been to Heaven is able to report back on the the decibel level. So I am going to compare what is in the Bible to my Jimmy Buffet concert experience.
I love a good concert. But when I go to a concert I go to hear the person who’s name is on the ticket. At a Jimmy Buffet concert apparently you go to hear thousands of Parrotheads singing along with Jimmy. Yes, Jimmy has the microphone. But he may as well be whispering from his bus backstage. Let’s just say, I was not a happy Parrothead.
But I digress … Heaven.
In Revelation 5:11-13 it says there were “angels numbering thousands upon thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand.” I know at the Jimmy Buffet concert I could not hear myself think and there were probably a few thousand less than “ten thousand times ten thousand.” So I think it’s fair to say that Heaven will be loud!
Finally, a church service where we will not be a distraction!
I cannot wait for the day where our God is the true focus of worship. Where we don’t run the risk of being called out for too many bathroom runs, Croc slapping, hearing the sound of our own voice echo in the sanctuary, and glucose lancet snapping.
These will be such minor sounds in the realm where angels praise our God.
A modified version of this post was originally posted at Stef McKeever’s site on July 2, 2014.
Stephanie McKeever: My husband, Matt, and I have been married for over twenty years and live in Missouri. We are the parents of three boys – Matthew, Evan & Christian. Evan, our middle son, was born with both physical and intellectual disabilities and has developed some medical needs, like Type 1 Diabetes among others, along the way. Through my children, I am daily reminded of the grace, forgiveness and love that Jesus offers us. Sometimes it is the hard, painful way. But I am so thankful to see God’s daily hand in our lives. When I’m not taking care of our boys (or maybe simultaneously) I also have a passion for the children in our local foster system. We were able to adopt after foster parenting and are reminded every day of the children in this system that need to see the love of Jesus in a tangible way. I have been writing about the painful things in this life and trying to remind myself and others of the hope that Christ has for us even in the painful times.