Thoughts from the Thicket
San Jacinto News Times - January 2008
By Dr. Don Shannon

When my wife and I make a trip over to San Antonio to visit our oldest daughter, we always take what she calls “the back way.”  I suppose that could be construed as an accurate description when you compare it to the way our daughter usually takes down I-10 when coming to visit Coldspring.  “The back way” takes us over to Willis and down 1097 to Montgomery, then over to Navasota, through Brenham to Round Top, then to LaGrange.  From LaGrange we go to Schulenburg, where we finally hit I-10 about 100 miles east of San Antonio.
Now, I know that sounds like a long way out of the way, but it really isn’t, and besides, there all kinds of things to see along the way, things besides the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, which was probably the first thing to come to your mind.  I’ll admit the creamery is perhaps the most important, but it’s not all there is to see.  Other sights include the statue of the French explorer, LaSalle, in the middle of the highway in Navasota, the “old time” fire engine complete with horses and firemen behind the library in Brenham, and if you take your trip at the right time of year, there’s the worlds biggest antique show in Round Top.  The show stretches for miles along the highway on either side of town, and it generally takes an hour or so just to drive through.  Up near LaGrange there is the big yard art gorilla that changes his outfits with the seasons, and the list goes on.
One, however, that I don’t want to fail to mention is the world’s smallest Catholic church over near where they have the antique show.  I couldn’t tell you if it really is the smallest Catholic church, but that is what the big sign out front says, and it sure looks the part.  We’ve never stopped to take a close look, but as near as I can tell, it could seat about 10-12 people, that is if the priest wasn’t too fat.  Apparently services are still conducted in the building, and I’ve often wondered how many of those in attendance are there just to say they’ve worshiped in the smallest Catholic church in the world.  If they had too many visitors, obviously they would have to stand outside.
The last time we passed that way I got to thinking about how one would go about finding
out if the church really was the smallest in the world.  But no sooner did I entertain that thought, when the reality of the scriptures came to mind.  That reality is that no church can be the smallest, or the largest for that matter, in the world; that is, unless you are talking about a church building rather than a church.  That little church building near Round Top may be the smallest in the world, but the church that meets there is certainly not; it is a part of a much larger congregation that includes the whole body of Christ.  In the kingdom of God there is no big church or little church, there is only the church, and every congregation, regardless of the size of their place of worship, is a part of the whole.
It is this church as a whole that Paul tells us “…Christ also loved…and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:25-27).
The next time you pass a place of worship, be it big or small, remember that the church itself is always bigger than its buildings, and it is never confined to a specific place.  The church Christ loved and for which He gave himself is both worldwide and eternal, built upon the rock of faith, “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).