Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Dear God,

Your world needs your help.  There is much fear, anger, and conflict.  We are a divided people.  We have forgotten we are family.  Yes, families squabble but at day's end we come back together because we are family.

Because we belong to you, we are brother and sister to one another.  We may speak different languages, live in different lands, practice different traditions, wear different colors, and walk different journeys but you make us family to one another.  How we speak about one another, how we regard one another, and how we treat one another impacts our whole family. 

You show us the way to wholeness.  You place within our paths brothers and sisters we have not yet met.  You give us opportunity to meet, greet, and reach out.  For moments or minutes or hours you bless us with the sacred space to be family.

Sometimes we are just ignorant of all other brothers and sisters.  We listen to the news or to prejudice or inaccurate information.  We develop fears, doubt, and suspicion.  We begin to form beliefs that are simply not true.  But then you send us a brother or sister to cross our path and with open hearts we see something different.

I remember traveling to the USSR in 1988 with the National Council of Churches.  I was afraid but felt compelled to be there for the celebration of 1,000 years of Christianity.  Every day we rode on buses, walked on streets, ate in restaurants, purchased gifts in stores, and engaged others.  I fell absolutely in love with the Russian people. 

Four times I traveled to the Middle East to visit the Holy Land.  I met Jews, Muslims, and Christians and I discovered in talking with them that we all wanted the same thing for our children...peace and hope.  I came away with a healthy respect for all the family there.

After a dreadful beheading of a humanitarian worker, I attended his memorial service.  The auditorium was filled with family.  We were Muslim, Christian, Jew, and more.  We were brother, sister suffering together.  At the end of the service, we held each other and wept.  We felt love grow and fill the room.  Truly, we were family.

Grow our love
for one another,
Lord;
help us
see the truth
that sets us all free.
Grow courage
inside us
so we
can approach
one another
in friendship.
Grow grace
deep within us
so we
can forgive
and begin again.
Please Lord,
please help
our world.

Love, Andrea