This past Sunday, my oldest daughter and I decided to drive down to Blount County and attend services at Williamson's Chapel United Methodist Church. The church is small, and its current congregation appears to be a fraction of what it once might have been, but the people were gracious and kind, and the service really warmed our hearts. Part of what made the service so meaningful, at least to me, was that this was the same church my 3rd great grandfather, Allen Anderson, began attending with his family in the early 1840's. His oldest son, Thomas, grew up and fell in love with the daughter of another family within the church, and they eventually married and raised their own family while members there.
There's something particularly poignant about being able to worship, not just alongside good people, but also among the echoes of those who shared a common faith and whose hearts beat with a common blood nearly 170 years ago.
