A Few Conversations from Our First Week in the Backyard

A Few Conversations from Our First Week in the Backyard

On Monday we opened the backyard after a long and chilly winter. Spring is definitely here when we gather with guests in there instead of being cramped up in the house with spillover onto the front porch and patios. The backyard at Manna House has picnic tables and comfortable lawn furniture where guests can sit under a canopy of trees. There always seems to be breeze blowing to keep folks cooled on hot days.

On his way out of the backyard on Tuesday, just as we were closing, Charlie asked me, “What do you think it feels like to be dead?”
“I don’t know Charlie. I don’t think we’ll feel the sunshine on our face and hear the wind blowing in the trees.”
“I’m not sure what to expect,” Charlie replied, “but I want to be hopeful.”
“Me too.”

Gary likes to share his understanding of the Gospel. He’s picked up a lot of toxic theology along the way in his life; a great deal of emphasis upon going to hell, a list of sins that will send you there, and a sense that anyone who doesn’t accept his version of Christianity will go to hell. Still, occasionally he comes up with an insight or phrase that isn’t quite so toxic. Today’s phrase was, “a shallow water preacher.” I had never heard that phrase before, so I asked Gary what it meant. He explained, “A shallow water preacher is a preacher who’s not deep enough to get you saved.” I thought about baptism. This would be a preacher who’s not going to get one deep enough into the Gospel to get one fully submerged in the baptismal waters of sharing in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

Matt talked with me while he put large amounts of sugar and creamer into his coffee.
“I love these trees” he said looking up to the trees that shade the backyard at Manna House.
“I love these trees, too,” I said, “They sure give us nice shade on a hot day.”
“Did you know trees have three dimensions?”
“No. What do you mean?”
“The first dimension is the roots. They stretch down into the ground, down into our ancestors, reaching back in time to the past, to the wisdom of those who have gone before us.
The second dimension is the trunk. It stands in the present, with us, in our danger and toil. The trunk is solid and easy to see but also more than it appears to be since it has those roots and it also takes us to the third dimension.
The third dimension is the branches that reach up into the sky and touch the heavens, touching up to God, up to the future where we are going. You look up and you get uplifted. You see more than if you just look down or look straight ahead.”
At this I was a bit taken aback. Matt has perhaps said maybe ten words to me in the five or six years that he’s been coming to Manna House. He’s often drunk and has been asked to leave the property. Today he seemed perfectly sober.
“Matt, you do love trees. Thank you, and I see the truth in what you’ve said.”
So Matt told me about the three dimensions again.