| Sunny Side Up July 31, 2002 � 2002, Kathleen Gibson Our youth will change our world I was seventeen the summer I spent that week high in the Swiss Alps. I�ve never breathed air that pure, before or since. I remember the wildflowers on those slopes; a palette only God could assemble. And I remember the cowbells. They woke me each morning as their owners, seeking higher pastures, chimed and minced their way along the narrow trail just outside my conference center window. We had arrived there by the thousands�swept in on the four winds. By bus, boat, airplane, and train. From every continent and numerous countries; from a multitude of cities, villages and hamlets. Not all had white skin�.some faces were black, or yellow or brown. We wore different clothing. Some spoke different languages. But together in that tiny village our differences faded. We came together to express our common Christian faith as only youth can. We read and studied the Bible, dialoguing long over how to live out our faith in a faithless world. We prayed, sang and celebrated. We were jubilant. We were unrestrained. We were awed at God�s presence among us, aware that if we were willing, this week would change us all. And we had a prodigious amount of fun. We hiked one afternoon, a long line of us, single file on a goat trail. We climbed to the source of the Rhine River, and in that Alpine gorge where the mighty river is birthed as a small stream, some were acquainted with snow for the first time. The day was warm; most of us were in shorts, but I still see them�the uninitiated-in-the-ways-of-snow�rolling in it, rubbing it on their bodies, eating it by the faceful. You could do that up there. I�m sure I�ve forgotten much about that holy week. But there�s something I�ve never talked about that I can�t forget. The prayers. They echo still, in heaven and my heart. We prayed our days open. Crept out of our dormitories singly and in pairs. In fives, and sixes and sevens. Found quiet places all over the mountainside; knelt and lay, sat and stood among those breathtaking wildflowers. To heaven was raised the sound of young voices, and back to earth fell the tears of those moved by something only people of strong faith can understand. A spirit. Lively, invigorating, sweeping over us like a zephyr, winding through our twos and threes; melting our separateness and dissolving our selfishness. The same Holy Spirit met last week with the thousands of young Christians in Toronto at World Youth Day. I saw it in their faces, heard it in their voices. And rejoiced. People of the world, prepare for change. Just as the Rhine begins with a small stream and becomes a torrent that carves deep gorges, when a young person is filled with the Spirit of God and determines to live that way, neither heaven nor earth is permitted to remain the same. It has always been thus. It will always be so. Forever and ever. Amen. You can respond to this column at [email protected] |
 |