I didn’t have a Christian upbringing and the only time I can remember going to church was a few times for the Christmas nativity...with my mum, where we used to live in Heston. I remember believing that the stars only came out for Jesus’ birthday as it was the only time of the year I was ever out walking in the dark as a small child. I didn’t attend a church school though remember singing from the Songs of Praise book during assemblies. I always had a belief that God existed, that He created the world, and that Jesus was a real person who died and rose again. My great-grandad bought me a book of children’s Bible stories when I was young, and I loved reading them. They were read and reread so many times over.
When Mark and I got together, and subsequently married, we didn’t discuss our beliefs at all. Our wedding day was wonderful – but it was in a hotel. We didn’t even consider a church. But a couple of years into our marriage I felt what I can only describe as a pull. It was a pull to go to church – Staines Congregational Church specifically, which is round the corner from our house. Every time I drove by or walked past; I would feel that familiar pull. I felt it when I was sitting at home. It wouldn’t go away and was, quite frankly, a bit annoying. I tried to push the thought of going to that church – or any church come to that - out of my mind but it kept pinging back. I said nothing to anyone. It felt like a ridiculous thought and certainly wasn’t one I could tell Mark.
Quite a while later, completely out of the blue, Mark said to me that he’d been feeling a need to go to church – specifically Staines Congregational Church. He’d been feeling that way for a while but didn’t want to say anything to me because it was something we’d never talked about. So, we decided that we would wait and attend together at Christmas – as that seems like an acceptable time of year to just wander in! And that’s exactly what we did. We waited and first attended the Christmas midnight service and felt like we’d found somewhere we belonged.
I want to say that it feels completely unbelievable that we were both feeling the same thing at the same time. But it’s completely believable as this was God’s way of making our faith something that grew together.