The Rocking Altar
by Charles Killian, Asbury Theological Seminary Professor 1970-2004
Grandmother had an old rocker. When she rocked in it, it made a creaky sound that could not be located nor soothed. I now have the rocker and rocked my daughters to sleep on many a night accompanied by its unusual rhythmic cadence.
That rocker was Grandma’s altar. It was her place for quiet time by the front window. After breakfast with Grandpa, off to work he would go, with black lunch pail in hand. She would make her way to the rocker and dispatch us kids to play outside. Looking in the side window, I could see her with her half-cut glasses reading a book. “God’s Book,” she’d say. Putting on her lace prayer bonnet, she would kneel down and cradle herself in that old rocker.
One time, before she sent me off for play time, she invited me to the rocking altar. We knelt down together and she prayed for her grandson, that I would grow up to love Jesus and be a good man ‘after God’s own heart’. That was etched on my soul. And to this day, it holds almost a center place in my understanding of ‘quiet time’
She was taking care of her ‘inner life’, and in the midst of her multifarious duties of taking in washings and ironings, baking, canning, doing laundry with a scrub board, spading the garden, weaving at the loom, making quilts and blankets, she rarely missed her solitude.
On rare occasions I heard her singing. With her crackling voice, with eyes looking upward, she sang songs like “Some Golden Daybreak”, “Bringing in the Sheaves”, and “Rock of Ages.” Not very good poetry, but that was not the point. She didn’t know much about poetry and theology, but she was well acquainted with Jesus. And she believed that when this is all over, she would abide in her Father’s House, forever!
I’d give anything to have one more visit to that humble little house and let memory take over, because that ‘Rocking Altar’ is where my spiritual ‘quest’ began. And I have never gotten over it! Stop by the house sometime and let’s rock!
I too have precious memories of my grandmother and her quiet times. She had a lasting influence on my life and relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. You also influenced me more than you realize. I want to say “thank you” for all the time and “pointers” you gave me. I graduated in 1977 and retired in 2011. Retirement didn’t last long. I became part time pastor of a small church beginning in 2013 and I am enjoying it tremendously. I hope our paths will cross again someday.
I learned so much from Dr. Killian when I was a seminarian 35 years and I am still learning from him. I truly enjoy your articles. Keep rockin’, Dr. Killian!