Personal Essay Example: My Favorite Place in Marengo

Sitting between quiet neighborhoods in Marengo, Illinois sits Zion Lutheran Church. It is a tall building attached to Zion Lutheran School. The exterior is covered in tan and beige bricks with a dark brown roof. At the top of the steep roof sits the large brass church bell with a metal cross on the top. The side of the building also has a big brown cross on it. Zion Lutheran Church is a sanctuary open to people young and old. This building is full of beautiful sights to take in. When you walk into the building, you enter the narthex, which is the room before you enter the main part of the church. It has info for the church as well as the bulletin for the next service. Through the thick doorways leading to the church are long, straight aisles, with heavy pews in straight rows. The pews are light-brown wood with maroon cushions on them. The maroon cushions have faded to a light dusty pink from the sunlight flooding in through the stained-glass windows. The stained-glass windows are in two long sections above the altar. They are a patchwork of a rainbow of vibrant colors of glass depicting various scenes from the bible. When the sun shines through the windows, the rainbow light floods through the building and paints rainbows all over the walls. The high wooden ceiling has wooden arches that support glowing rectangle light fixtures that illuminate the building when the sunlight doesn’t. The altar is wood matching the pews and is draped with tapestries according to the church calendar. It has a big bible on a stand and vases of flowers adorning the tables on the sides. The candles hanging above the wall have a soft glow as they are lit every service. Along with many beautiful sights, the church contains some notable smells that make it unique. The first is the scent of the candles burning, the light smoky scent that wafts through the church as the candles burn. The bibles sitting in the pockets of the pews have an old paper scent, like that of a library. Occasionally, you can smell the sweet smell of the flowers that sit on the top of the altar. There are a few sounds that you will hear once a service is started. The low, humble toll of the church bell ringing in the opening and closing of every service rings loudly, and it echos to the surrounding neighborhoods. The hushed murmur of the crowd before the service starts, the notes of the piano, and the chords of the pipe organ sitting atop the balcony. The joined voices of the choir and the singing of the congregation fill your ears when in the church. The building seems to come alive when the church is in session, with the humming of the instruments, the beautiful rainbow light dancing around the walls, and the welcome of the pews. It is a place that makes you feel welcome and safe, like it protects you from everything outside its walls. This is a place that is very close to my heart. It was where I was baptized at 5 months old and confirmed as a member of the church last year. I grew up going there on the weekends for church and every Wednesday for chapel during school. Some of my best memories are in that church, so it feels like a photo book. All the times I spent there with my family or my class in the years past are soaked into the walls like a sponge. It is somewhere I feel safe, like a shelter during a storm. My favorite place in Marengo, Zion Lutheran Church, is a welcoming, safe space that many people love. I have been going there since I was little, and it has been a considerable part of my life. It is a sanctuary for many people all over Marengo.