John 16 - Connection

So last night I took Scout on a walk (was way too nice to stay inside last evening) and came across the same flowers that I took a shot of the other morning. This time, the light was full and the colors bright. Same flowers, different time. I also that morning read the beautiful last verse in John 16 - “Take courage, I have conquered the world!” Or as other translations share it, “Take heart, for I have overcome the world!” It doesn’t change the immediate realities of friends I wrote about yesterday, it doesn’t change the immediate realities of people in camps on the border, it doesn’t change many things in the immediate. But it does speak to the reality that there is an ultimate transformation coming in the world. But it isn’t a transformation that happens just magically by itself but it needs us to be witnesses to it, to speak to it, to work to change the realities, to be the hands and feet of God in the world.

This morning, we had a beautiful moment of connection in worship today as there was a rather spontaneous joining of hands of the whole congregation today and a beautiful reminder of the power that comes in how we are connected to one another. So, my prayer as I look at this transformed picture is for how we can be a part of that change that we can go from the place of beauty shrouded in darkness to where the fullness of color and transformation shine forth.