Week 1. Day 5 – I See You

One Body. Above all. Through all. In all

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, If you have love for one another. John 13: 35

I pull up a chair and join a circle of women – different in age, in culture, in dress.  I do not know their names nor speak their language. The sounds of the city in Tanzania surround us with laughing children, honking horns, roaring motor cycles and shouting street vendors.  We huddle close to hear each’s others words and listen to the translator to understand in our own language.

This takes time and time is a gift. It slows us down to attend more deeply, to notice more intently, to let go of our fear more quickly.  It gives us a chance to see beyond the differences and engage within the common bonds of women bearing witness to our mutuality.

One woman in particular catches my eye.  Our common age, greying hair, gnarled arthritic hands and wrinkled brow draws me toward her. We do not speak directly, but a mutual nod, a look of the eye and a smile share a common knowing.  Is it a shared grief? Is it the love for family? The struggle of survival? Maybe it is the shared stories of cooking food, washing dishes, changing diapers, caring for the sick, worrying about children, longing to be seen. 

We never speak to each other but communicate through a nod and a smile.  Yet somehow a friendship grows between us. I carry her presence with me, even now as I return home. I discover a oneness beyond words and a relationship beyond time.

Breathprayer:

              Breathing in:   Holy God…

              Breathing out: …uniting all.

Reflection:  Describe an experience where you made a connection with a stranger and knew that you were both part of the body of Christ?

LENTEN REFLECTION FOR Sunday, March 10, 2019. This is written for the Southeast Iowa Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of American Daily Lenten Online Devotion

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