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He felt really lucky to be alive. Just surviving the sinking of the ship he was on during unimaginably terrifying storm induced seas seemed miraculous.  

To be tossed up on this small island alive – alive – filled him with immeasurable gratitude.  

Of course, he was lonely. How long had he been here, trying to survive, to learn coping skills, truly living off of the land? He wasn’t really sure.

Each day he would scan the horizon, hoping against hope to see a ship. He also constantly searched the skies for a plane. His woodpile was ready to be set aflame in an attempt to signal a would-be rescuer. He had learned how to start a fire just as primitive man had done millenia ago. 

And then…one day, one glorious day, he saw it. A vessel, and not that far off.

They saw him. Or his signal, and began turning the bow to the shore. His joy was indescribable.  

When the small boat that was launched from the ship, with its three man crew, reached him, they were truly amazed. He seemed fit, even.  

He showed them the primitive little hut he had constructed out of scavenged and varied bits and pieces of trees and palm fronds.

One of the rescuers asked him what that small structure was that was situated on a rise a bit more inland.  

“That’s my church,” he replied. “I built that too.”

Then one of the men spotted yet another, similar, construction just a short ways off from his “church.”

“What’s that over there?” one asked him.

“Oh, that? That’s the other church.”

“Why in the world would there be a need for two churches, when you are the only soul on this island?”

“Well, you know. We just couldn’t get along.”

And that, friends, is why so many churches have split, formed new churches, have split and formed new churches, have split…Then there are church bunnies, who hop from one church to another.

Such seems almost endemic to most, if not all religions and all denominations. Especially is this so, and has been so, among Protestant denominations. It isn’t limited only to the Christian faith.

Many, if not most, who are strong believers, also feel that any who don’t believe exactly as they do are just wrong, misguided. Human nature?  

That’s another story, however, and I know better than to go there.

Until next time, friends, Shalom.