Hope and hugs

Today's Doodle for Google leaped off the screen at me this morning. It features at its center two people locked in an embrace. I clicked on it to learn more and found that Sophie Araque-Liu, a 16 year-old from Florida, created the Doodle as an expression of self-care. She generated the Doodle as a nod to her Mom, her reply to the prompt as part of a national contest sponsored by Google: "I care for myself by..." She explains that when the pandemic started to weigh on her, her mother offered encouragement and much-needed comfort. She hopes that her art will remind others, as her Mom assured her, that we are not alone through the worst times, that we might have hope.

The Doodle reminds me of what can be best about churches like the one I serve, where spreading hope should always be part of our purpose. Our communities were founded as sanctuaries from life's travails and woes, as settings where one might find strength, grace, or whatever else we need to keep going. We aren't hiding from trouble, trying to wish it away. We understand that challenges and pain are real, but we also try to lean and live into the truth that love is always a bit more real and more powerful. As Jane Goodall writes in The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, "Hope is what enables us to keep going in the face of adversity." 

I recognize that Christianity has dropped the ball on this over the millennia, that we have not only failed to embody grace but that we have often been the source of adversity for too many. Examples come easily to mind: the Doctrine of Discovery fueling the horrifying mistreatment and genocide of indigenous people, the murderous Crusades, and more recently fanning the flames of fear-based hatred of others. But our deeper truth beyond these misdeeds is that God's resurrecting love made new life possible for the crucified Christ. Nothing in the universe can separate us from that love.

Imagine if more of us could strive more often to ensure that "church" is both place and people offering hope to the world? Church for me is a setting where I encounter the good things named above that help me endure, and these gifts are often delivered through other people. I work, serve, and lead toward a way of being church that seeks to heal and help all of us feel embraced by God and each other, that we might remember that we are never alone.