I had not been vertical for very long this morning and was about to go downstairs to start my coffee when something sort of unusual (for a Saturday morning, or any morning, or any time of the day actually…) happened. Perhaps in your world this wouldn’t be too unusual, but in my world it felt unusual.
I had heard a firm-but-light knocking at my front door.
Yep, that is unusual.
Perhaps I’m making a mountain out of a molehill, but there are days that go by when I don’t see another human being (in person). Only humans that exist on my computer screen, or who are messaging with me, or I’m on the phone with, or can be seen or heard in the distance in the general, rural area. I mean, I do have neighbors, but there is a lot of space between us all.
My first thought was that perhaps I actually had a customer for my produce or art business, and some stranger was knocking on my door to ask about something.
What to do, what to do…I thought to myself.
Like a hold-up mildly reclusive person (OK…the biggest problem was I hadn’t had coffee, my hair looked nightmarish and I was in my PJ’s…at 10:30 am…) I found myself sneaking over to my 2nd floor office window to peer down…hmm…there’s a van in the driveway and my other neighbor Pete is out with his weedwhacker, ear muffs and sunhat, looking down and trimming by my trash cans like he does before he rides his tractor through my lawn…but…I don’t know who is at the door.
For a minute I thought about calling out the upstairs window, “Who’s there?” but decided that didn’t make sense. Especially, if it might be a customer. Not a good business move.
So, I braced myself and quickly trotted down the steps and was planning to hide behind a half-cracked right-main-door if need be, and hope I might sound polite. Just as I reached the landing, I looked out the left door-turned-window where all my plants are on shelves (created to make sure this 2nd door looks like a window and no one tries to open it)…and I saw two men walking away from my porch.
Immediately I knew who they were.
And then I ducked to a spot where I could watch them without being seen–like some eccentric semi-old lady who hadn’t had coffee, combed her hair or much else.
They both had on long-sleeved, starched white dress shirts and nice slacks. The two men both had shortly-kempt hair, and one or both of them appeared to be carrying a book. I studied them from behind my plants, just ten feet away.
They were making their way back to a dark colored van and glancing all around, as though they were either taking it all in (my painted artmobile, all the garden stuff, signs, wagons, flowers painted on the building, bird baths and plants and all sorts of colorful, creative decor) or scouring the scene just to make sure no one was home.
They got into their van and left, and my neighbor Pete was still buzzing his weed whacker. Part of me wonders if they approached him first, and he might have said, “Well her van’s there so she’s probably home.”
I suppose this really isn’t much of a story per se, but it did get my mind brewing first thing about the power of two people. In case anyone has not guessed who these two strangers were, they surely were Mormons out to convert me on a Saturday morning. While I suppose they could have been Jehovah’s Witnesses, I’m leaning toward the “Mormon vibe.”
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There’s biblical precedent, I suppose, for people traveling in two’s in a variety of situations.
I don’t feel like looking it up, but I believe in the Book of Acts (or maybe in the gospels) that disciples/apostles were sent out in pairs in certain situations.
Actually, it’s now toward the end of my long day and I don’t feel like looking most any of this stuff up in order to have any proper references.
- In Genesis, God said it wasn’t good for the man to be alone, so he made him a woman. The two of them then got into trouble, and then they were hiding (in a different way than I was this morning) from one another and from God. Nevertheless, the two of them together remained quite powerful, and from them all humankind was birthed.
- Next I think of Noah and his ark, where the power of two’s was in full narrative.
- Moses had Aaron, and the two of them, together, held up the weight upon Moses’ arms as he held them up until every last Israelite crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. Throughout the Old and New Testament, we have examples of mentor/mantle pairs such as Elijah and Elisha and Paul and Timothy.
- The Christian has Jesus, who says to us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is our beloved, and we are (individually and collectively) His. Jesus tells us that we can be yoked with Him–and that His yoke is easy and His burden light. From these statements and elsewhere, concerning the yoking of two, we need understand what it means for oxen (or mules, or humans) to be yoked with one another–and to what purpose is yoking?
So, why do Mormons send their people out in pairs?
In this case, I’ll say what went through my mind as I saw them walk away.
I remembered once, many years ago in Delaware, where two such people came to my door and I was home alone. I can’t see for sure in my mind’s eye which home we were in but I just recall being polite at the door and when they went into their spiel I thought I could state my own beliefs/faith in response to whatever question(s) they asked me, thinking they would hear my message to them and then just leave.
But, as I recall, that didn’t happen. Between the two of them, every response I made got latched on to–like two dogs (or cats) working together with their prey. The conversation kept going on and on and I “think” I even invited them in after awhile, and got my bible out.
It didn’t help matters. It just went on and on and on…and as I recall, I was alone there in the sense my kids were either down for naps or at school or something…it’s all a blur…but this morning, as I watched these two walk away, despite their wholesome, clean-cut appearance, there was a big part of me that felt intruded upon.
Yes, just by them coming on my property and knocking on the door. IN A PAIR, a team.
They do this for a reason, obviously. And I hate to think of others who might easily be sucked into that kind of vortex (ex. an elderly woman, or a confused young person). While of course if a man stranger is going to go to someone’s door in such circumstance, it probably makes an amount of ethical sense that there are two–as witnesses–in case they get invited in to the stranger’s home.
However, I really don’t think this is the main purpose for their pairing.
Actually, as I brewed my coffee and was musing over the power of two people, I began to wonder, “Where did they go after they left my property?”
I felt almost like one might feel if trick-or-treaters came to the door when your lights were out with no candy to give…one would assume they would meander on to the next house.
And that made me think of the next house up past Pete’s drive and past the township’s salt building…my older Mennonite neighbors. These are two sisters who live together and never married…again…the power of two. In my imagination I imagined these two sweet ladies coming to the door and encountering those two men, and I wondered, if that were to happen, what they would do.
Part of me is somewhat amused by this thought as I do believe the two sisters, age 55 and 70ish, could easily have taken them on! And they would be so kind and polite and non-confrontational about it. They might just tell them what they told me one time when we were having pleasant exchanges one day in their gardens about various faith matters and practices. I was curious about some things, and told them I was a Christian also.
I learned that there is only “one real bible” from one of the sisters, and I do hope in my imagination that if the two Mormons went to their door, they were bold enough to tell them that, as well! (I’ve thought to myself, “I would never, ever argue with a Mennonite over any faith matter! I just wouldn’t! There’s some type of purity there that I would just never, ever assert any theological variance!)
Well, I suppose I’ve had enough musing-writing mileage here on a Saturday night from this morning’s knock-knock-knock on my door.
But I still feel I should get to the most powerful biblical concept involving two, which comes from one of my favorite books of the bible: Ecclesiastes.
When I get in the mood, I could listen aloud to the Book of Ecclesiastes for hours. In fact, one Saturday about two months ago (more or less) I kept doing that…all afternoon…as I painted. Chapter 1…to Chapter 12, and then Chapter 1 to Chapter 12, and then…Chapter 1 to Chapter 12…
The header on my blog here features a verse from this book: To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.
Any time in the bible that there are two’s paired, it is for some purpose.
The Book of Ecclesiastes may be hard to find proper takeaways, perhaps that is why if the mood strikes me I can listen repeatedly while all kinds of images and connections and thoughts and feelings and inclinations flash through my mind. I don’t think one tolerates this book too well unless they are in a certain frame of mind.
Tucked into Chapter 4 of this book is a verse that is often associated with marriage (the threefold cord of a man, woman and God being necessary to fulfil the stated purposes), but, the exact context of this well-known passage is not clear, per se, of whom it is speaking about.
I believe it initially speaks about the yoking of two people in a general sense, but then it moves into an analogy involving a third person. I think it is absolutely appropriate to apply this passage to the strength of a God-centered marriage with purpose, but I’m not so sure it was written with that intention specifically.
At any rate, it is not good for a human to be alone, for a number of reasons. While the passage makes several statements about this truth, I think the most powerful is that a human that is not paired in some situation can be easily overpowered.
We all need someone that has our back, so-to-speak. Whether it is a good friend, a teammate of some sort, or a spouse, there is something tremendously human and beautiful in the God-breathed strength of two.
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Oppression, Toil, Friendlessness
4 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed—
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
and they have no comforter.
2 And I declared that the dead,
who had already died,
are happier than the living,
who are still alive.
3 But better than both
is the one who has never been born,
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.
4 And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
5 Fools fold their hands
and ruin themselves.
6 Better one handful with tranquillity
than two handfuls with toil
and chasing after the wind.
7 Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:
8 There was a man all alone;
he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
“and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
a miserable business!
9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Thank You For Reading
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