This coming weekend, I hope to pull out the yard rake for the first time this season. I’ll begin by cleaning up the lawn and flower beds following a wet and windy winter. The usual mix of twigs and leaves are nestled among discarded dry cleaning receipts blown from who knows where, disintegrating mailers that made their way from the front porch into the bushes, and abandoned chunks of sidewalk chalk from last summer.
Scraping and scratching at the yard, digging in the soil and working around trees and bushes, I am always reminded how disconnected I’ve been from the earth all winter. It has been months since I felt the cool touch of grass. The lifeless leaves and cold, damp soil welcome me back and reconnect me to the ground.
In addition to being disconnected from the earth, it is all too easy to be severed from people. Most of our neighbors don’t interact much in the winter as we run from our cars to the mailbox before scurrying into the house.
Throughout the week, I pay at the pump, drive through the ATM, and zip through the drive-thru – all without encountering another human. Even though we are “connected” more than ever with phones and computers, we can easily go a whole day without ever engaging a person in person.
When we become so immersed in our own stuff, we miss what is happening around us. Our vision is narrowed to our lives, our goals, our dreams and has no room for others and their concerns and celebrations. But we need each other. We are created to be connected.
Connect FourTM has been in heavy rotation in our home for many years. The strategy, counting, and scheming add up to hours of laughter and togetherness for our family. If you aren’t familiar with the game, the goal is to “connect” four of your checkers in any direction, while preventing your opponent from doing the same.
All too often, one of our kids whoops up on me, because I am lost in my own strategizing. Paying attention only to my plans and carefully making steps to connect my four, makes me unaware as someone else quietly plots and drops four red checkers in for the win.
This April finds me craving connections. The season of Lent and the days of Holy Week beg us to reconnect and the coming weeks deliver! Connectivity is central to what God is up to in the life of Jesus and the purpose of the Church. Worship connects us as our voices are bound together in song. Prayer connects us when the Spirit of God weaves us together as we say, “Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.” In creation, we are linked to our Creator.
Make time to connect during these weeks. We meet Jesus and one another as we gather around palms, a wash basin, bread and wine, the cross, and the empty tomb. When we connect, we all win.
In peace and hope,
Pastor Lowell Michelson