Pursuit

Rev'd Sarah Bronos

I was not raised in a Christian household although both of my parents were nominal members of the Church of England. When I was born, my mother refused my grandmother’s request to have me baptized.

At age nine I started attending Loreto Roman Catholic Convent School for girls in the town where I lived in the UK. Although I had been asking questions about God since I was five, I knew little to nothing about Christianity. I was very shy at that age and spent most of my break time after lunch in the chapel-- a place I loved to be. (There is still a mixture of the scents of flowers, beeswax candles and scented holy water that can take me right back to that place where I felt so very safe.) I was drawn to the carved wood Stations of the Cross that wrapped around the Chapel walls. I didn’t know the story, but found myself on many occasions in tears as I contemplated the carvings.

At age eleven I was devastated to learn that I couldn’t remain at Loreto, as I was not Roman Catholic. My parents enrolled me instead in St Albans High School for Girls, a Church of England school. Sadly, the divinity mistress discounted the truth of the miracle stories --and indeed much of the Bible. I believed these stories to be true but was ridiculed for those beliefs. But God provided another means for his Word to reach his children. The art teacher read stories from the Bible and asked us to the paint them. (I still have two paintings in my office today that remind me of the faithfulness of this woman. What an impact such a witness can have on a life!)

By the time I was twelve or thirteen my peers started attending confirmation classes. After they were confirmed they were able to receive Holy Communion at the high altar in St Albans’ Cathedral nearby. I desperately wanted to be able to receive Holy Communion but couldn’t because I wasn't baptized and confirmed.

In my early twenties I went to live and work in Paris. While there I was often drawn to churches where I could sit, be quiet and feel safe. When I was 26 I met Pat. Six months later we were married – in a church in a small hamlet in Cornwall. I was still not baptized.

Later, we moved to Miami, Florida. George was born when I was 29 and Katarina when I was 32. It was about then that a neighbor began asking me to go to church with her. It was a very gentle and persistent invitation. There was a stirring in my heart, but also fear. What would people think of me? After all, we’d been living here for quite some time, and I hadn’t attended church. I didn’t fully understand what Christianity was all about. However, I yearned to get back into a church. Eventually on the Easter of my 33rd year, I stepped back inside a church again – and felt like I had come home. Five weeks later on the Feast of Pentecost I was baptized together with my children, and I was confirmed. At last I was able to receive Holy Communion for the first time. What joy!

About a month later my neighbor seemed to have changed – she was more peaceful, more joyful, more serene. I asked her if something had happened. She said, “I have asked Jesus to be Lord of my life.” I still didn’t really know what Christianity was all about since I had no classes prior to being baptized or confirmed. Truth be told, I didn’t even know if I believed that Jesus was anything more than a great human prophet! But I knew I wanted what Carrie had –so I sat down in what was to become my prayer chair. Here I gave this most pitiful invitation, “Jesus, if you are really real, will you come into my life.”

Our most gracious Lord does not seem to care about how he is invited in – only that we do so! A deep-seated peace and a sense of being deeply loved descended upon me. This thankful pilgrim’s journey continues “further in and higher up.”[1] How grateful I am for the faithfulness of a friend who never tired of extending an invitation, and to our Lord who never stops pursuing his lost children.





[1] CS Lewis – The Last Battle