In the past, in rural areas and small cities, Saturdays meant going to town or going downtown. As a child I can remember it taking an hour sometimes for my parents to progress a block or so. They would meet someone they knew and spend a few minutes visiting and then move a short distance and run into someone else. They were there to shop for their various needs but no one seemed to be in a hurry. I suspect that their greatest needs were fulfilled on those Saturday sidewalks not in the drug stores or five and dimes. There was much gained from this casual fellowship.

The storefront sidewalks were the Facebook of yesteryear. This is where you shared the things in your life and discussed the events of the time. The great difference was that you were face to face and you didn’t need emoticons (those little faces that show your emotions) because your real facial expressions could be seen.

God designed most humans to be social beings. That’s a truth borne out by the nearly worldwide involvement in the social media that crosses nationalities, languages and political boundaries. We have gained a lot by the Internet.

Since we are told we are made in the image of God, it should not surprise us that after He created us, one of His first acts was establish fellowship with His creation.

He covets our fellowship not in the distant way we do many times on the Internet but more closely as if in the Garden of Eden or the Saturday sidewalks of the past.

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