Fourteenth Week of 2010

This past Holy Week, a lot has happened and I was struggling as to what I should write about. Well, I decided to ramble, but with a point. Bear with me.

I taught Sunday school today, covering the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden. The lesson also focused on Jesus Christ's redemptive death at the cross and resurrection thereafter, illustrating His mercy, grace and love--fitting for Easter Sunday. Later in the day, I read a passage in a book about how all twists and hurts in relationships today stem from the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, i.e. sin. You don't need to be a biblical scholar to see from Genesis 3 that commitment, intimacy and interdepedence between man and woman are irrevocably damaged once both of them disobey God, with their relationship moving far from God's initial mold and becoming unsustainable on its own. Now, let's go back to my week. I met with a friend every day, Mon-Fri, to catch up or get to know them better. I don't think I have ever done that. As someone whose experiential learning of fellowship is only a few years old and still growing, I enjoyed these meetings but felt overwhelmed at times. Flash forward to today after service, there are seemingly millions of people I want to talk to--this new guy enjoying Keenan's organ, friends I haven't seen in a while, friends whose parents are in town whom I want to greet, students in my class because I can be cool as a teacher outside their classroom, friends whom I just love being around, folks who look lost just like I was when I first came to Emmanuel, Highrock, or any new church...and there is only just one me. For a few seconds, I seriously wished I had multiple copies of myself working and absorbing these moments of fellowship. Even after the wonderful brunch and dinner I had with a number of folks, I felt like I missed out being with some people who I couldn't spend time with. Of course, today was a special day--there would be some days where I will want to go to a corner called my apartment and just space out into my window, enjoying the fellowship of one and only myself.

Okay, so for all those tales going back and forth in time with seemingly no common thread holding these stories together, here is my point. Fellowship, relationship, community--it is all a gift. My roommate, freshly engaged, once talked about how he looks at a lot of things in his life as a gift from above. Somewhere between teaching the story of sin in the Garden of Eden to my K-1 kids and feeling a bit sad about not being able to hang out with many folks whom I love, I realized this: on top of being my Savior through His suffering, death and resurrection, Jesus showers me each day with a gift of other people, among other things. Human relationship was SOO broken after disobeying God in the Garden of Eden (I mean, the way Adam deals with his first human relationship--i.e. blame his wife and also blame God for giving her to him--is just so disheartening). Yet, by His mercy, grace and love, our relationship and fellowship with one another is restored, albeit not fully as we continue to struggle with our sins. Still, that we are allowed to have fellowship not only with God Himself, but also with other human beings and experience community that God Himself enjoys with His Son and the Holy Spirit...isn't that an amazing gift?

This amazing gift should make me turn more toward the Heaven and thank the Giver. After all, it would be silly to cherish the gift but not the Giver.