I enjoyed drawing this simple celtic cross, woven together. And I thought it was appropriate I use it for a blog this week leading into Easter.
It’s not a typical cross, I know, but it spoke to me about connectedness. I wear a cross, almost always. It is a symbol of where I belong, of Whom I belong to, of Whom I love.
Jesus, who died on a cross, came to bind us all together. He talked a lot about love and how we are to live in love, to love one another, and that He embodies love. He spoke of his love for all.
So much of our lives can be lived in separateness. Even as we are unique, we are also all connected by our heritage, by the One who loves us, who created us.
Much of this is mystery, and theologians have been trying to explain it for centuries. Which in many ways has splintered the church, many of whom feel they have found “the way”, and in their “rightness” have lost the love for one another.
One of the events I love at Easter-time is that some of the churches come together to celebrate this Easter story. It is a bridge building time that draws different denominations together. We experienced this in the Lenten services, and many will gather together on Good Friday.
In my work, in hospital chaplaincy, I see this on a broader scale. I love the fact that different denominations of all kinds are called to work together to provide spiritual care. We are also called to open our hearts with friendship to all… those with faith, those with a different kind of faith, those with no faith…to all people regardless of race, gender or religion.
We are called to love.
We are all part of God’s creation.
We are all woven together.
This week, we have reacted in horror to tragic events in our Okanagan valley, acts of violence that have taken lives. This is hard to understand.
Something is broken. There is tragedy to broken lives, to those who have not known love, or lived by love.
The helper in me asks, “how do I make a difference?’
I keep coming back to love. And I ask the Creator of Love, Jesus who came in Love, how do I respond?
In a complex, broken world, there are no simple answers. Except for this: I choose to live my life in love. To love all I meet. It is love which heals, which binds us together.
There is that old song we sang as children: Bind us together, Lord, Bind us together.. Bind us together in Love.
May you know this love in this holy week.
