| Sunny Side Up! July 18, 2001 �2001, by Kathleen Gibson Meeting in the Middle Brings Unexpected Gifts It was a Bible study for two. We met most Wednesdays for about two years, I think. I can�t quite remember. RoseAnn, me, and the Apostle John. We never made it through. Life kept intruding. Then we both got jobs that put a stop to it all. I wondered if our time wasn�t wasted. So often we spent it talking, rather than studying John. We seldom connected after that season ended, several years ago. Looking back now I see sitting between us on that kitchen table an exquisitely wrapped gift. To RoseAnn and Kathleen, the tag reads. From God, with love. And I�ve realized with clarity that we were never alone, not once. Someone was at the table with us, chair tilted back�hands clasped behind his head. He was smiling as we puzzled over something in John or tackled the frustrations of parenting teenagers. Or explored the differences in our two traditions�hers Orthodox, mine Protestant. Years later, insights received during that time keep coming back to me. �Schzamm!�moments when truth leaped the chasm between her faith and mine and joined us in the middle. Truth set afire by the spark that is the true Light of the World, who always comes with joy to where he is welcome. Wasted time? Not a moment of it. It was a priceless offering. Things we were taught by our unseen guest have helped us both through subsequent crises in our lives. Parenting earthquakes, marriage traumas, the winds of change in our homes and work situations� We didn�t use any books, just what our two traditions had in common. Our Bibles. We didn�t call in any experts. We sometimes had more questions than answers. We didn�t always pray. We probably didn�t do it �right.� We were two women with a hunger to dig deeper than our Sunday-go-to-meetin� religion. I wanted the grace of being allowed to be myself�questions and all�not �the preacher�s wife�. She had shunned a group setting because she didn�t want to look foolish for not knowing the �right answers.� We gave each other the gift of acceptance, and God gave us the gift of his divine presence. That�s what friends should be about, I think. To meet in the middle of our faiths, to reach out a hand of acceptance and let the truth we each see pass into the life of the other. Because Truth, after all, is a person. The one in the tipped back kitchen chair, with the smile on his face. That�s my Jesus. I came to the computer one morning recently and found this message from RoseAnn. � Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints in our hearts, And we are never, ever the same.� Ditto, my friend. Ditto. You can respond to this column at <[email protected]> |