Personal Surveys

Providence

The Photo Comp

Little Essex Street

Personal Calibration

52 Sundays

The Crosses of the
Northern Neck

The Crosses of the Northern Neck

Do you think of the cross on which Jesus died
Of the blood he shed for you
Are you prepared to meet him in that land of love
By his word are you going to abide 
Remember the cross on which Jesus died 
Follow in his footsteps each day 
He shed his blood for you
and he shed his blood for me 
Never cast that cross aside
Remember the Cross – Bill Monroe & his Blue Grass Boys

Some people would say that it is the end of the road, but they would have their bearings wrong. It is the beginning of the road. The road does not go very far, maybe a tenth of a mile, before you come to a church, a church where my grandfather preached. You can't go very far down any road in Virginia's Northern Neck before you come to a church. Some of the churches are rich and some of the churches are poor. One of the poorest sits next to an orchard full of ripe peaches. It is a place of great beauty with people of deep faith. To hear a menhaden chantey sung by the 94 year old harbor master at the blessing of the fleet is not something you soon forget. Now many of these people of faith are divided and this division echo's the mood of our country. To look in the local paper's church directory and see an ad for St. Stephen's Church, (Anglican) next to an ad for St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, (Diocese of Virginia) makes me think of the poem tacked to the wall in my survey For Pearl Starbird:

So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths that wind and wind
while just the art of being kind is all the sad world needs.
Kindness – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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