Living as one human family

A friend recently described herself as a “knitter,” but she wasn’t talking about yarn. She likes to bring people together and help create beautiful things from their unity. What a wonderful mission that is.

Let’s face it. The walls dividing people today have gotten taller and thicker—whether between men and women, young and old, gays and straights, developed and developing worlds, haves and have-nots. Yet the spiritual dream of unity persists. We believe God is a “weaver of oneness” who wants us to live in harmony: neighbor with neighbor, communities with communities, religions with religions, and nations with nations.

We are inherently similar. One of our favorite children’s books captures this beautifully. To Every Thing There Is a Season (Blue Sky Press, 1998; available from www.amazon.com) weds the sacred verses from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible with the breathtaking artwork of illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon. Each spread depicts a different culture—Egypt, Japan, Mexico, Greece, India, Europe, North America and others—to create a global family album that reminds us that we share in the universal rhythms of life. We can practice this unity by building hospitable and generous communities.