Life in Community

One of the things we appreciate about living here in our town is the sense of rootedness that we have and are building. After living for the first 9 years of our married life with only shallow roots (as related to the communities in which we were living--NOT our relationships with God, each other, or friends), it's a joy now to see much deeper roots already in place and continuing to stretch and grow. Case in point--today Jeff was able to slip away from the barber shop for a little while to go with me and the boys to Walmart to grab a bite to eat at the Subway there and do a little shopping. (As an aside, that last sentence would be extremely tough for a non-native English speaker to understand. It has too many expressions. "Slip away; what does that mean; did he fall?" "Grab a bite; are you really grabbing a bite; who are you grabbing it from?") As soon as we entered Subway, Jeff saw someone he knew; and before he was even done ordering our food, another man he knew entered the shop. It's an odd reversal that here in this community in which I grew up, my husband is the one who knows so many people now! It used to be that as a child, I couldn't go anywhere with my dad without somebody that he knew stopping him to talk--and now it's that way when I go out with Jeff. But instead of growing tired of it like I did growing up, I now find a lot of satisfaction in it. It reminds me of how God created us to grow and develop and live life in community. I hope that in our lives, through our home and our friendships, we can help others to find that sense of community that leads to healthy growth and shared joys.

On a related note, I remember something our friend Gabe Santos from Charlottesville said one time about how connected we are to so many other people. He encouraged us to think about a jar of peanut butter, then think about how many other people were involved in the process of making that jar of peanut butter and getting it to us. I don't know exactly how many people that would be! But it's obvious that our lives are intricately connected with hundreds and thousands of people that we don't know and won't ever meet, but they still affect us. I think it should bring a sense of humility to us as we realize that none of us are an island--none of us really pull ourselves up by our bootstraps without a lot of hands tugging along with us. It sobers me to think how grateful I need to be for the contributions of countless people to me, as well as how conscious I need to be of my impact on countless others.