I'm No Jesus

"Hey Dad!"

"What?"

"Hey Dad! You know that line, I guess it's from the Bible, wherever two or more gather...?"

I guess? Hard to believe I'm a preacher's kid.

"Oh. Wherever three or more gather, I will be there too."

I think that's what he said. I'm convinced his hearing thing is rubbing off on me and everybody else around here. What?

"The thing is, hon, what Jesus was saying was simple. I am in you and you are in me."

"Okay, that's what I was thinking about. That part."

I'm no Jesus. But when I Googled quotes from the Bible, I found "From where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them" - New Living Translation 2007. And since today's piece is a thank you note to you, dear followers, I thought maybe I could connect it somehow...Okay, it's a huge stretch, but I love the gathering part.

So this is a shout out to those of you who have gathered on the followers' page; the yellow smiley face, the bare-chested languishing person, husband with clown nose, cousin Steph in Florida, Kerry in Vermont, and Neeny, who fortunately for her computer, doesn't keep a hammer nearby. And the rest of your beautiful smiling, some painted, shadowed, and slightly distorted (Claire, is that you?) faces. Thank you. It occurred to me that I could have a hundred faces grinning at me each day if I could get my cousins and their families on board, especially Aunt Nip's branch of the family tree.

Thanks to my readers who comment and send emails. I appreciate the time it takes to reach out and connect. I get that we should all lie down. No talking, just breathe. But this is good stuff. It matters, this connection.

This Being Alive is a growing community because of all of you.

And me, Jesus' long-lost cousin, twice-removed.

"The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what place my touch will be felt."

- Frederick Buechner

xo b