Crazy in Love

By Bren Dubay
September 2019

Fall is subtle in Southwest Georgia. It comes upon us like a slow, quiet sunrise.

One morning you walk out of the house and there is a coolness in the air. By late morning, it will be gone and it will feel like summer again, but fall has flirted with you. Another morning and the cool is back. You hope it will stay, but it doesn’t, not at first. A few more days and it is cool enough that you imagine fall colors. You look around at the trees for them. Here fall colors are not take your breath away dramatic. You have to look for them and when you spot them here and there, you smile. Or at least I do.

Fall is different at Koinonia. We know that it is fall that will sustain us for the year ahead, for every season to follow. In the fall, we come together in a focused, intentional way. Not that we don’t at other times, but in the fall, almost everything each of us is doing has the bakery at the center. This time of year, the bakery serves as a constant reminder that we all must work together to sustain the community.

So, the pecan plants are cleaned, harvest equipment prepared, shipping area reorganized, ingredients purchased, shipping supplies secured, packaging stored, fall assignments set, catalog sent to the printers after being designed all summer, seasonal employees recruited and hired, volunteers welcomed and trained, emails drafted and the dance begins.

Smiles are exchanged. Words of encouragement freely flow. Laughter comes easy all over the farm. It is a deeply spiritual time here. Prayers are full of “thank you.” The music is turned up. And there is nothing like line dancing in the bakery … which we do at Geneva’s signal. Geneva Brown is our bakery coordinator and everybody loves her.

Recently, we have been reading the Gospel of Luke and pondering the woman looking for her lost coin, the shepherd leaving the 99 to go find the one sheep, a father welcoming his wayward son and why a manager would think a dishonest worker worthy of a compliment. Catherine of Sienna said of God, “Pazzo d’Amore.” Translated it means “crazy in love.” God pursues us, gives us time and cancels debts. God is crazy in love with us. You can feel it in the air. There is nothing quite like feeling it in the fall air at Koinonia. As we feel and experience God’s love for us, we also feel and experience our love for each other and those around us. There is something about the cool fall air and the way we come together as a community to work that draws us closer to our “crazy in love” God and the people God has given us.

Wouldn’t you like to come and experience that feeling with us? Come on then. There’s always a spot for you in the bakery’s line dance.