Friday, November 2, 2007

Dear God,

It's been nearly 15 years since we've been together as a family. My mother held the dinners and we kids gathered. Spaghetti and cheese, baked beans, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, turkey and dressing, gravy, cottage cheese, chocolate chip cookies frozen in Tupperware containers in the freezer. Pretty much always the same. A different salad every so often.

Angie and Paul have lived in England for 10 years. They returned to the US just 18 months ago. Angie and I have been e-mailing. It was time to get back together again.

I spent the day cleaning. When they arrived, we hugged and hugged again. I pulled out the old family albums, 35 years old. Yellowed edges, they show evidence of earlier times, memories captured on the page. Easter. Christmas. Summer. Family dinners. Vacations. Angie and Noele her sister found themselves as children as they turned the pages.

Laughter filled the house. Memories, funny memories coming alive, shared with family members. My family was together again. After so long.

Our family had come apart at the seams. Cut offs. Hurts. Distance. Yet there has been within all of us a thread, a family thread that held us together even when we were separate from one another. The cord must have been a strong one to have kept us from breaking away, never again to come together.

And here we were at last.

Glorious God,
in your loving presence
we find ourselves together.
We discover
that the cord
was not unique to us,
it was the sacred cord
of love,
established in heaven,
by your hands.
We were never destined
to be apart;
you planned our coming together
and we simply followed
your plan.
You are our God
and as little children
we have found one another.
Our hearts beat
with gratitude.

Love, Andrea