Easter "Peeps" Show

Sam and I attend a contemporary non-denominational church here in the city called Forefront.  I’ve been a spotty attendee over the last two years, and last year I dragged Sam there once and now he regularly encourages me to attend.  The church itself as a community is pretty young on average – mostly college students and young professionals – and the services are held inside of a bar venue (kind of funny to walk into church on Sunday mornings and see signs for jello shots…), which is not abnormal in a city stacked on top of itself.  Our pastor is in his mid-thirties and dresses in a trendy New York style.  Sam is involved in a small group (bible study), and the people in it are incredibly fun and actually know how to party.  All in all, we love our church and the people that go there.

This weekend at the ever-popular Easter services, church was held at a larger venue across the street at a local college to accommodate for the additional once-a-year church-goers.  I must admit I’m not always the most attentive Christian student; I often find someone or something to fixate on that helps me get through the parts I may not find so interesting, and this service was no exception. (**As a side note, I personally blame my mother and my “other mother”, my Aunt Shellie, for this fixation habit, having grown up constantly hearing stories like, “We saw this woman on the plane that had THE BIGGEST pimple on the back of her neck.  I was just staring at it trying to will it to pop!”)

Just as the service was starting, this husband and wife came in and took the seats in front of Sam and me just as we were starting to sing worship songs.  I had never seen them at our church before, but I figured they were just trying out the Easter service like so many others.  I immediately fixated on the uneven bobbed haircut of the wife.  It was chin length all the way around except for a very thin layer at the nape of her neck that was two inches longer than the rest.  Additionally, the bob part itself looked like she had maybe let a blind person do it.  What puzzled me was that she had brown roots starting to grow in, so she obviously had her hair done somewhere….which got me thinking further – is someone actually telling her that this haircut looks good?  Those were the kind of meaningless thoughts that were going through my head and I had to force myself to refocus on the scripture up on the screen in front of me.  I continued to fixate on this meaningless haircut and also noticed that she kept leaning over to her husband and whispering things.  So you come to a new church, on Easter, and talk throughout the whole thing?  Hmm, interesting. 

Fast forward about 30 minutes later, and our pastor Brian was in full-swing up front, talking about the Resurrection.  I was listening intently and actually very engaged and interested in what he was saying.  That was quickly averted though as the wife, who had stepped out a few minutes earlier, came back and sat down with her toddler son, whom I guess was about 2 ½.  She held him for a while like a baby, which I thought was weird for a toddler, but then I thought maybe he was just tired.  But a few minutes later, the husband took the hand of the little boy, and they walked up the aisle and left.  He returned shortly sans the little boy.  We were sitting in only the 3^rd row in one of the side sections, so the whole show was happening about ten feet from the pastor and in my direct line of vision.

After church, Sam and I went to brunch with some girls from Forefront, who had been sitting on my left during the service.  Kristi said, “Oh my God!!!!  I could not concentrate because of that lady in front of us!”  I asked, “Oooh, you mean the lady with the crooked haircut?”  Kristi responded, “Well, yeah that, but she wasbreast-feeding her son during the service!”  Shocked, I realized that the initial thought that had come into my head when she was holding the boy like a baby was that she was breast-feeding, but I had immediately dismissed that notion since she was not covering herself at all and was in a public setting surrounded by hundreds of strangers. 

I know this is a hotly debated topic amongst mothers, and I myself am not one yet, so I can only give my own spectator perspective, which is: cover yourself when you’re in public.  I am not against mothers breast-feeding even in public, but there is a respectful way to do it.  It’s not just about your own personal comfort, but the comfort of those around you.  I can only imagine what our pastor Brian was thinking as he talked about Jesus’s sacrifices for us and looked around to his flock to see an exposed breast in his very short line of vision (I mean, let’s me honest, no man can concentrate when there is even mention of a naked or semi-naked woman, let alone when it’s right in front of them).

The other thing that I couldn’t get over was that this boy was walking, talking, and had a full set of teeth.  In my opinion, unless there is some sort of health allergy or sensitivity that prevents a child of that age from drinking some other sort of milk, he is too old to be asking his mom for a snack.

Needless to say, you won’t be catching me whipping it out at any future church services.