The Power of the (Nearly) Unnoticed Thread

I’m walking with Scout (that should be the center of the “Ed Bingo” card) last evening and soaking in the beautiful autumn colors we have right now and was specifically focused on one tree and the vibrancy of its leaves.  As I was photographing one of the leaves on one side of the tree, I noticed a tiny glint on the other side of the tree’s leaves.  As I looked closer I saw this.

These two leaves are connected by the tiniest of spiderwebs (and also if you look really closely, you’ll see another web stretching up to the top right to another leaf).   But as I moved the slightest bit, the web disappeared.  I could only see it if I looked at it in just the right angle to the evening sunlight.

Friends, we are connected in ways that we don’t always see clearly.  Sometimes we have to look really closely to see it but we are and sometimes we have to rely on others to help us see the connection because we cannot.  I have to remember this whenever I hear someone say that some group of people or a place that people are from are garbage.  I have to remember this when I am so frustrated with someone in this current climate that I am not hoping for God’s best (not what they think is best or what I think is best, but what is God’s best) for them.

This is at the heart of some of Jesus’ hardest and most beautiful words...Matthew 5:43-44

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”

Yikes.  That’s REALLY HARD.

And this is also at the heart of what was shared in the CAC’s daily email today, written by activist Valarie Kaur.  I encourage you to read the whole think (link) but here’s a snippet...

...it means listening over time, being in relationship. Human beings mirror each other, so if you come with daggers out, they’ll come out daggers out. If you come out and you really wonder “Why?,” beneath the slogans and the soundbites, you’ll hear the person’s story and you’ll see their wound. You’ll see their grief. You’ll see their rage. You might not agree with it, but I’ve come to understand that there are no such things as monsters in this world, only human beings who are wounded, who act out of their fear or insecurity or rage. That does not make them any less dangerous, but once we see their wound, they lose their power over us. And we get to ask ourselves: How do we want to take that information into what we do next?

I invite people to take their wounds [and] their opponents’ wounds into spaces of re-imagination—of imagining an outcome, a policy, a relationship that leaves no one outside of our circle of care, not even “them.” This kind of labor, this kind of revolutionary love, it’s not the sacrifice of an individual, it’s a practice of a community.

Again, read the whole thing (as well as her book, See No Stranger).  And in case you are wondering, I am writing this as much to myself as to anyone else...I need to be reminded of this day by day...all in the image of God...all in the image of God...all in the image of God.

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

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