Dearly Beloved,
Well, yesterday came and went without me getting this sent to you. I spent yesterday morning with eight boys ages 4 through 7 at Vacation Bible School across Hwy 287 at Trinity United Methodist Church. I love VBS -- opportunities to get to know kids, to watch them grow and learn and just be cared about by a slew of adults, watching them experience God's love. This is Cora's third year in VBS, and she loves it. She calls Trinity "my VBS church."
I love that! I love when our children and our adults feel connection to the communities of which they are a part. As William DeShay C. Jackson (they, them) writes in their piece "Yellow + Sunlight" in the book Colors of Hope: "We must be committed to each other's flourishing -- not just survival -- and this requires connection."
That commitment does require connection. This last week, I preached on soil and our connection to the earth, and only when I consciously consider that connection do I even consider my commitment to its flourishing. Outside of connection, the work we do to help others or even the earth is really about us, not about them or about our interdependence.
So, when you consider the universal community of God's beloved children from whom do you feel disconnected? To whose flourishing are you not committed? How can you deepen your sense of connection and interdepence? What about in relationship to God's creation?
Being God's children, being peacemakers and beloved community tenders requires our commitment to not just our own flourishing, not just to others' survival, but to their flourishing as well.
Beginning this Sunday, you will see artwork on display in the sanctuary and narthex that may inspire your commitment to growing in God's love, to planting seeds of love in people close to you and in strangers, and to tending community wherever you encounter it! If you have something to submit for the art show -- it's not too late! Artwork will be displayed through Sunday, September 3.
With peace and much love,
Thandiwe
