thesoulpurposedotorg

I am writing a day late because we spent most of yesterday in airports – cancelled flights, mechanical failures, changing flights – we got to our home sweet home close to 3 am. I barely overheard the news about the most recent shootings in Colorado in the place people are meant to feel at peace. It’s not the first time there have been shootings in a church but it is no less horrifying and no less a violent contradiction to the Peace of Christ.
At that same time that was happening, I was witnessing peace at work. My husband and I were visiting the First Baptist Church in Granville Ohio. It is an annual visit coordinated with his company Christmas party. We love visiting this church because it is a Welcoming and Affirming Church with a long history of Peace and Justice. It is so refreshing to worship in a place where anything can be discussed and all are truly welcome. At the end of the service, I turned around and was astounded to see the man who preached at my installation service in 1989. Bill and Mary Jane Salyers happened to be visiting this church as a part of a visioning process for their own church. We hadn’t see each other in more than a decade. And then I remembered what I had written on this blog about my prejudice against the state of Ohio…..Bill had read the blog and said it didn’t sound like me at all….and there I was in the midst of Ohio among people whom I admire….my eyes were beginning to open.
About 12 hours later, we arrived at the tiny airport in Elmira NY. By chance, two of our fellow flyers had no way of getting home (not a lot of taxis or rental cars at 1 am in the Elmira airport). We had the delightful opportunity to give them a ride and found ourselves getting to know two wonderful men who clearly live their lives in a way that let’s God shine through.
What does this have to do with peace? I belive that the goodness of human beings and the image of God that is present in each of of us is a light that no darkness will ever overcome. We probably won’t see peace on earth unless we are peace to one another.