June 24, 2013

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

My vacation took an unexpected turn this past week when my mother fell breaking her leg, requiring hospitalization and then transfer to a rehab. Amid the myriad of issues to confront in this was, “who do I need to notify?” Cousins and family that I hadn’t seen or talked to in a long time came to mind. Which friends of my mother should know? What about neighbors? It gets to the heart of the question, “with whom am I significantly connected and why?” In a world that often emphasizes our differences and divides us into categories, what ties us together with others and what marks our true connections? One of the first people I did notify was the woman in our congregation that heads the prayer chain. She, and most of the folks in our congregation, doesn’t really know my Mom, but their love and care for me and their faith in Christ have created a bond that is wonderfully significant. These are the things that happen in smaller congregations of faithful people and it seems has been happening since the first century.  What if we spent less time thinking about how we are different, less time talking about people and spent more time focusing on what about Jesus ties us together, actually talking with each other. Want to give that a shot this week? And maybe also say a prayer for my Mom.