Reflection: Community - PG# 5122 (2007/2008)
by Grace Imathiu
When I was growing up in an eastern African village, a group of women walked to the forest every evening to gather firewood. They tied their bundles of sticks with a rope and carried them home. When I think of community, I remember that village and those bundles of sticks. You see, all residents of this village we call our planet Earth are bound up with one another in what Bishop Tutu calls “the bundle of life.”
Whether we define ourselves as a community or as villagers of one planet, or a bundle of sticks tied together with God's rope, the fact is our individual lives are connected and what happens to one of us affects all of us whether we know it or not. The Scriptures put it this way, “Christ is like a single body which has many parts. It is still one body even though it is made up of different parts.”
Reflection: Diversity - PG# 5116 (2007/2008)
by Grace Imathiu
I grew up in a cookie-cutter village where everybody spoke the same language; had the same color of hair and eyes and skin. And although we had a few congregations, we were of the same religious denomination. Then a family moved into our village. Everything about them was different, from their language down to their clothes. And rumor had it their eating habits were unusual.
I will forever be grateful to Beatrice my Sunday School teacher. She taught us about the gift of diversity we found ourselves in, by holding out her hand and saying, “You see, the fingers of my hand are different in shape and size. In the same way we are all fingers in God’s hand.” God’s world is a creation of different shapes, differing sizes, a whole lot of variety in tribes, color, culture and religion. Imagine if all I had were thumbs!
Reflection: Prayer - PG# 5101 (2007/2008)
by Grace Imathiu
Prayer is an invitation to God to come and be with us in our situation. Now God, of course, is always with us, but prayer makes our hearts welcoming and cognizant of God's presence. A few years ago when our car broke down in a deserted spot on one of Kenya's rural roads, the uninvited guests of panic and fear crept into our hearts. My mother and I held hands and invited God into our situation. And God did come! Mother's hands gripping mine were part of God's presence. When we heard what sounded like hyenas in the distance, our laughing to tears about who would volunteer to be the hyena's appetizer was God's cheerfulness with us. Pray without ceasing says the Scripture. Invite God in all your situations!
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