Connected

"I am the vine; you are the branches." - John 15:5

A reminder today on how all things are ultimately connected. I just finished reading Donald Spoto's The Hidden Jesus: A New Life (review forthcoming) in which he talks frequently of the interconnectedness of all things in Christ. I also happened to be humming the tune to a cheesy piece of contemporary Christian music I heard the other day for the first time in decades, "A friend's a friend for ever" (if the Lord's the Lord if them).

And then I get a comment on this blog from an old friend from high school. Our lives took remarkably different trajectories for 25 years, and then happened to collide once again through this blog. Attitudes and tempers have matured. Two people who perhaps once had little to talk about are now able to converse, again.

I suspect that the lives of all we have ever known, as well as those unknown to us, are closer to ours than we think. WHile we all walk different paths, which sometimes can seem to be lonely, we're all connected to one another through the same source. we shouldn't be surprised when these connections pop up in the moist unexpected ways.

Perhaps if Jesus were incarnated today, he might also have said, "I am the network; you are the nodes." We are never separate from one another or from God, except in our perceptions. Admittedly, in today's world perception can seem to be everything. But really it's not.

Can we have the faith to believe that all things have a tendency to work together for the good for those who love God and are called according to God's purpose?