I Miss Uncle Bob

As is sometimes the case with ex-relatives, you lose touch with some people that at one time you were really close to. My cousin related the events surrounding her dad’s illness and final months. I didn’t even know until he was gone. I still have the penny coin book he gave me when I first began a coin collection at the age of 7. I still remember his oil paintings of landscapes hanging on his bedroom wall, and they weren’t paint by number. I remember he was a mailman for a long time. I remember he let me and my cousins stay up late and eat pizza. Good memories. At the same time, I realize that there are many reasons why we become disconnected; distance, time, separation, family breakups, but none of the reasons seem very appropriate when we think about all that we miss when those distances and separations and losses accumulate.
One of the great tragedies of our time is the degree to which we are disconnected. We find people attending the same church, sitting just feet apart week after week who do not find within themselves the freedom or initiative to introduce themselves or to welcome another in a way that allows them to share who they are. Being together in the same places is not community. It is shared space. Until we communicate our hearts, thoughts, ideas, dreams, hopes, prayers, expectations, fears, challenges, strengths, weaknesses, failures, successes, and whatever else is possible to relate, we remain strangers in the same room.
A great need today is for human to human sharing. It starts with personal openness about life and living. It can begin in saying please…or thank you, in opening a door, allowing for a greeting and exchange of courtesies, but then it can and should be so much more. Shared meals, shared hearts, shared lives…it marks the community of believers…known by their love for one another…at least that is what Jesus said should describe us best.