Created to be Connected

We have become such a scattered people.  Few of us live in the place where we were born, the place where our parents reared us, and the place where we went to school and church.  There was a time when the young leaving the nest stayed close by to look out after the old birds, but no more.  We have become a people scattered from Timbuktu and some other far away place.  This means that folks today are more prone to live out their lives in some place other than places walked by parents and grandparents and other family members.    

And in addition to the loss of familial ties, we have lost connections with friends.  The people who were important to us at earlier periods of our life also moved to places far from where we knew them.  Some of the people regarded as my life long friends now live in Virginia, Missouri, North Carolina, and Texas.  There are others who live in some of the places I have lived over the years of my life, but I woke up today thinking about how disconnected I am to people who have been and still are important to me.  It seems ironic and strange that in an era where there is so much connectivity that we would sense such disconnection.  From the beginning the Word tells us that we were not only created by the Creator, but that we were created and put into a community where we are known and loved.   

The farther we get from our connection to our Creator, the farther we get from understanding the importance of being connected to others, and the farther we get from being connected to a community, the more difficult life becomes. We need one another.  The effort required to really affirm the important people connections in our life is worth whatever it might take.  It is one of the things which gives us life.