Church Bells Are Ringing

Ah, how nice it is to have the windows all open again! The cool morning breeze is so welcome as it passes from one side of my house to the other. I didn't know how much I longed for fresh, cooler air to revive me and cleanse our home of the trapped smells of our cooking and cleaning until it could finally be done.

It was a week into this wonderful bliss that I realized I was hearing church bells. On the backside of our house and beyond the tree line is a church that rings a tune each morning. I hear it as I eat breakfast or am in the bathroom getting ready for the day. And I just love it!

I grew up in the Catholic church so maybe I heard them there first or maybe it was from another source, I don't know, but I have always loved the sound of church bells. I thought this morning that I'd do a bit of Googling about them. Without getting too involved in dates and who started what when, I'll just say the main reasons for their use throughout time seems to have been to signal for fires, storms, and warn of events such as wars, and to call people together for worship, government meetings, and as a call to students that class was about to begin. They also ring for weddings, to announce deaths, and anything else that is important to the community.

Where I worship, we don't have a bell to ring. I don't think it mentions anything about not having them in the Bible, although it isn't mentioned either when the saints gathered in the NT, but I don't think there's anything wrong with using it to call the saints together for worship. I don't know. I love the sound of it just the same. It brings back lovely memories of going to worship with my family and gives me a peaceful feeling. Can you imagine if every church in the world rang a bell for worship each Sunday (and we could manage to do it at the same time)? I wonder how high into the heavens the sound would carry?

For the rest of my day, I will enjoy the sounds of the birds chirping through my windows and this evening I'll hear the crickets. What a blessing it is to open up!