Advent: day 23

When I look into the faces of the congregation and see Jen and Sara, who are married to each other, and Kham, who was born in Laos, and Vickie, who is intersex, and Sammi, who is transgender and married to Vickie, and Eliot, who is developmentally disabled, and Teresa, who has epilepsy, and Rich, who has done his prison time and is taking care of his elderly mother, and Alanna, who is looking after Lisa's two little girls, and Lisa, who is recovering from cocaine addiction, and John, who is single again, and Gabriel, who is autistic, and Melinda, who is Haitian- and Puerto Rican-American, and Tim, who is Japanese-American and his wife Jung Sun, who is Korean-American, and I see them all loving one another, then I know that the kingdom of God is near.


Rev. Jean Southard