The past seven days have been memorable in many ways! Evidence of deep division within the human family has been at the forefront of the weekly news, but we have also seen powerful images of people coming together in ways that earlier generations couldn’t have imagined. On the steps of our nation’s capital, at a Memorial Service in Charlotte, and in many other places across this land, we saw glimpses of a new community that looks something like a patchwork quilt that is made up of diverse pieces of cloth.

Here at St. Mark’s, loving hands sew pieces of cloth into quilts throughout the year. When they are done, the quilts keep people warm at home and abroad, but they also serve as symbols of something much greater. This was beautifully remembered last Thursday when we took four of those quilts and wrapped them around families in Mexico.  We had only known each other for five days, but God had already begun the process of joining our lives together in new and hopeful ways. We were becoming a quilt, ourselves, and it was a sacred thing to experience together.

In passing along these gifts, we also remembered the place you have in all of this. “These quilts are from our whole congregation,” we said, “and they represent the way that God joins us all together in love.”

Pastor Jan Ruud