Dec 10, 2021 |
Hoping for Company
| The Rev. Philip DeVaul
Hoping for Company
"We humans are built for relationship and connection, and not just with one or two people. Our bodies and souls actually want to feel the sense of sharing life with a host of people. But for many of us – myself included – it took a pandemic and months of isolation to realize just how deeply we needed simply to be among people, how important it was for us on a daily basis that we weren’t really alone. I took so much for granted. I definitely did not realize how connected to community I was. I thought I was alone a lot while surrounded by beautiful people living connected, intersecting, and interweaving lives.
It occurs to me that I have spent the majority of my life thinking similarly about faith. I long believed that Christianity was about me and my beliefs and my faith - my relationship with God and what I would need to think or do or believe so that I could be the right kind of person and go to the right place when I die. I did not understand that faith is something shared with others, that belief is something we live into together. For God and the saints, eternity is happening right here and right now – I don’t have to wait until I die – I am already participating in eternal life now, already experiencing the company of Heaven."
