Several weeks ago, I was given a handmade Brownie, a little elf.  I was told that Brownie had been found trapped in the tower above the bell at the church; he’d been trapped there in the dark since repairs were done twenty years ago.   “Great,”  I thought.  While I really wanted the companionship of a Brownie, why was I the one to get the one struggling with the trauma of 20 years of darkness and captivity?

Today I walked into the church and found that my long term friend, the sock monkey, was embracing the Brownie.   An ordinary sock monkey shared the love of God with a scared and scarred Brownie.  That is church at its best.

Picture caption: Sock monkey (created by Chris Watts) comforts traumatized Brownie (created by Chris Derby).   Both sit on the communion table at the Broad Bay Congregational United Church of Christ on Worldwide Communion Sunday.