DAY 6: "49" by Marilyn Russell

DAY SIX: "49" by Marilyn Russell

On a Sunday evening in the summer of 2006, I sat with several couples in a living room listening to a message on CD that Kevin Wood had brought to the people at The Church of Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL. It was not the first time that I had sat with several of these couples. For months (maybe even a couple of years) my heart had sensed a stirring for learning more of God’s Word. Now, these couples that I had listened to messages with, read with, and wrestled in the scriptures with had made the decision to become a church. My soul was in a struggle.

What was I to do?

Was I really supposed to leave a church family I loved and the way I had known “church” for years (and I do mean SEVERAL years) to follow the strong stirring of my heart and truly learn more of what it means to follow Christ or was I to stay “on the fence”? I had been in a quandary all spring and summer of that year crying out for a sense of peace or release. It had not come.

However, that night as I listened to Kevin ask the question what does the number “49” mean to that body of believers in Birmingham, he was speaking to my passion of seeing folks welcomed into the family of God – all people - hurting people. I thought, well, he is going to tie this number into a meaningful significance in the Bible text. Wrong.

“Forty-nine," he asked again. "Do you know what that number means?”

He closed the message by saying that 49 is the number of people it took at Brook Hills to help a single mother get from her car in the parking lot to a seat in the worship room. It took a team of volunteers, from the parking lot greeters to the door greeters to the welcome desk volunteers to nursery workers and children's workers to sanctuary greeters and ushers - all 49 of them working hard just to help that one single mom get to where God wanted her to be - in a seat where she could focus without distraction on the message of Christ for her life. 49 people with 1 passion.

At that moment, I could not see anyone in the room for my tears and no one else in the room mattered, I had my peace – Follow Him – be one of those 49 that holds out her arms to take a baby, speak to a child, or hug a hurting heart to show her she is accepted and wanted in God’s family, in the same way that I have been loved and accepted. Serve Him with people that have that same passion.

My Prayer for Trace Crossing:

Lord, may I ever be mindful that I am a part of many people who prayerfully continue with the same one passion to follow You.