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Communion Unconfined

Handpicked blueberries and Nectarines
given to Miah and Kaylani for their
wedding top a tostada made by
Claire for Sunday dessert.
(9/4/11)

I've been pondering thoughts inspired by a post Kendal wrote a while back called "sunday times." The post described a dinner he prepared for our family at The Keep. "I find this act of us eating together a core thing that has brought us all together," Kendal writes. "I understand what communion is and that it is something Jesus told us to do often, but in all honesty the act of communally eating a meal with others is so much more spiritually filling than eating a piece of pre-cut bread dipped in some nasty grape juice..."

Communion is a fellowship experience; a celebration of Jesus' life, and the restoration of Humanity's relationship with God that his death accomplished. 


Communion is not a ceremony.


The following images depict communion experiences I've had with my family.

Josiah helps prepare a soft taco
extravaganza for Sunday dinner
at The Keep. (8/21/11) 

Kendal prepares his hookah to share
as an after-dinner continuation of
 our communion gathering.
(8/21/11) 

The crew shares hookah and Star Trek together
at The Keep while digesting dinner. (8/21/11)

Claire concocts a tostada (see above
image) topped with figs and sweet
chevre cream to share with
 friends. (9/4/11)

Family, meet family. Communion gathering at Vic's Pizzeria
 following Kaylani and Miah's wedding rehearsal. (8/27/11)
photo by: Teresa McLain

After-wedding celebration/fellowship/grub at Mud Bay Coffee.
(8/21/11)
photo by: Teresa McLain 

Evidence Of Angels (at least, if you ask me)

Josiah at The Keep, post accident.
Apologies if this ruins any suspense.
Photo by: David McLain 

Last Saturday etched itself into my history book for a few reasons. Some reading this might notice it was the day before my wedding. Others may recall this was also the day Hurricane Irene hit the East coast. Neither of these, significant though they may be, impacted my memory like the experience my dear friend Josiah had.

That morning, Claired and Josiah opened the coffee shop. As they were preparing the shop for the day, they realized a few crucial supplies were missing. On weekends the shop operates sans manager, so Josiah offered to drive to Cash & Carry to remedy the situation. "Don't speed," Claire made sure she told him.

Maybe an hour after Josiah left, an ambulance showed up at the shop. Paramedics stepped out, and Claire's heart raced as they walked toward her. "Are you the only one working today?" they asked. "I'm afraid Josiah won't be making it back in."  After she was assured Josiah was alive and OK, and her initial panic subsided, she began calling the list of Mud Bay employees to find someone to cover his shift. After initially ignoring her phone call, that person happened to be me. Jeremiah dropped me off, called Josiah's dad and left straight for the hospital.

In between pulling shots and steaming milk, Claire relayed to me the details of the incident. Just minutes after leaving the shop, Josiah flipped his 4Runner merging onto I5 from Highway 101. He may or may not have been speeding, but he did wind up with a ticket for "Speeds too fast for Conditions." Regardless, he found himself upside down on the side of the highway in a totaled SUV.

Here's where the story gets me grinning. The first to arrive on the scene was a pair of bicyclists. Bicyclists who were also off duty EMTs. "I was upside down," Josiah recalls. "The next thing I realize, they are reaching their arms in, checking me out, and pulling me out the window."

A volunteer firefighter happened to be driving by, and was next on the scene. He held Josiah's head in his lap and asked him concussion questions while they waited for an ambulance to arrive. Next on the scene was yet another off duty EMT, who took more vitals and did more EMT-like procedures.

By the time Jeremiah arrived at the hospital, fully prepared to sit at Josiah's bedside and read him tabloids as long as necessary, Josiah was up and walking. His parents dropped him off at the coffee shop a couple hours later looking banged up, but confident he'd be at work the next day. (The rest of us were not nearly as confident, and so he was written off the schedule for the next day or two. Must admire the boy's spunk, though.)

Josiah sustained some solid bruising on the side of his face, a concussion, and his ear turned an odd shade of blue-ish purple. His mother informed us that he's always wanted a black eye, so wish granted so to speak. The way I see it, God's got his back and it's a good thing.