Week 2. Day 7 – A Shared Life

One Spirit. Above all. Through all. In all

I therefore…I beg you to lead a life
 worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
 with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
 bearing with one another in love,
 making every effort to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
 Ephesians 4: 1-3 

Four girls hurry down the road, clustered together and followed by other school children.  They giggle and smile with arms draped around each other’s shoulders like a shawl of care.

With the ease of a shared story and joy, they move with dancing steps.  In a free hand, they carry an empty water container. Quickly, excitedly on the way to a newly opened village water well, they join the celebrations and blessing.

Before the new well was built, these four were late for school, gathering water for their families from a water hole five kilometers away.  They traveled together for protection. Scaring away the wild animals, staring down an elephant and keeping each other safe from the cruelty of demanding men. Each day they collected water from the pool, dirty red from the muddy ground, covered in green for the growing moss and shared with the cattle and goats.  It was the only water they could find to sustain their thirsty families. They did this together. It was too hard to do alone.

Yet, today, they celebrate, together. They laugh. Their friendship sustains them beyond mere survival.  This shared life and proclaimed sisterhood bonds their lives beyond religion and beyond the hajib wrapping the head of two and a cross hanging from the neck of the others.

Before the water well was built, they knew they needed each other to live. Now they can love each other for life.

Breathprayer:

              Breathing in:   Holy Spirit…

Breathing out: …sustaining us all.

Reflection:  The Spirit unites us into community, even across beliefs and traditions. How have you know this to be true?

This reflection is written for the Online Lenten Devotion of the Southeast Iowa synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

www.seiasynod.org/lent

Photo by Jennie Peaking Photography