Ubuntu...again

This morning my mom texted me to tell me that she was carrying the South African flag this morning at church in honor of me and my travels in Africa for a missions emphasis at my parents' church. When I read that message I just started crying. In fact, I'm still crying and will probably do so all day now.

And I had to ask myself why this simple statement affected me so much. I have a South African flag in my room along with paintings I purchased while there. Looking at this may make me miss it, but it does not make me cry.

I am crying because I love the church. And that statement is such a divergence from where I have been for the last several years. There have been moments over the last few years when I have said that I never wanted to be a member of a church again. I have said horrible things about the body of Christ. And it hurts my soul knowing that I have said such things, because even though we metaphorically refer to the church as the "body of Christ", there is something very tangible, very real about that statement.

This morning as my mom carries this flag she is connecting so many parts of that body. She is connecting our family to each other. She is connecting me at Glendale with Green Valley. She is connecting all of us to the churches in Cape Town like the one at Masiphumalele. She is connecting the United States to South Africa. North America to Africa as a whole. She is representing what the colors of the South African flag mean: unity and peace. She is living out the meaning of Ubuntu, that we are all connected, that we all belong to a bundle of life.

So as I cry, I think about this amazing act of worship that my mother is performing this morning simply by carrying a flag. How she is joining others in the same act, connecting members of the body of Christ from across the world to a little southern baptist church in Hoover, Alabama. It is such a beautiful act, and it will be on my heart all day.

I am immeasurably grateful to my mom for doing this.

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