By Ann Hostetler, professor of English
This week’s theme: God’s healing is at hand. Come, walk in the way of God’s heart.
Walking in the Congaree State Forest in South Carolina with my sisters the day after Thanksgiving, I soak in the light and the clean air, the patter of leaves dropping from the still-gold beech trees. Within five minutes I’ve seen hikers that represent the peoples of the world — descendants of Africans, South Asians, East Asians, Arabs, South Americans and Europeans. They are alone and in family groups, ranging from babies to great grandparents, and many have brought their dogs. This was not the South Carolina I’d pictured on my drive down from Indiana. People keep smiling at me. “I like your shirt,” one man comments. I look down and remember that my T-shirt, a loan from my sister Mary, says “Kindness Matters.” I look ahead at my sister Laura’s back. Her T-shirt, also borrowed from Mary, says “Life is Good . . . Orchestra Makes it Better.” Mary, who is wearing a simple flowered blouse, is a public school music teacher in South Carolina and the embodiment of goodness. Every day she teaches strings to over a hundred sixth graders, remembering their names and their needs. Being with my sisters in this sacred space of a forest reminds me of Richard Rohr’s description of the trinity — a God of relationship, in which three very different entities are united in one. We’re different — one of us is tall, two are short, one is a musician, one a historian and one an English professor. But we’re united by love and the time we took to walk with each other in this beautiful space. Julian of Norwich speaks of “oneing” in God. Taking this time together to set aside our worries and our differences, we are walking in God’s heart, in relationship, with creation and each other.