Inside Importance

   Having to take a trip to the northern part of the county the other day, I remembered an older church building on Highway 17 that I had always wanted to stop and photograph, so I did.

   Needwood Baptist Church, organized in 1859 to serve the slaves of the nearby rice plantation, began on the grounds of the plantation and then was brought to its current site a few years later. I am not sure how long the African-American folks worshipped here, but I do note a portable air conditioner in the side of the building.

   In walking around the south side of this building, I noticed some artificial flowers on the inside of the side windows:

   Then on the other side more of the same, but with the sunlight and the time of day, a shot of the ones on the north side also took in the ones on the south.

   As I looked through the windows, I could see some of the furniture inside, along with other church items. That made me wonder:

   What was this church like when it was in operation?

   How about the lives of the people that made up this congregation, what were they like and how did they live? What were their joys and sorrow, and how did those play out in this very room?

   How did God work in the lives of these people and what eternal decisions were made here?

   The outside of the old church building may be important from a historical perspective, but it is the lives of the people who met on the inside, and the decisions that they made, that continue to resonate down through the years.

   Amen