[An Inch At A Time: Reflections on the Journey] Aleluia, Alleluia! Viva la Fa...

[SUSAN RUSSELL]

Hugo Infante/Government of Chile, via Associated Press

I'm totally hooked on the unfolding miner rescue happening live on television this morning. What a wonderful, wonderful story as one after another the men who have been buried thousands of feet under the ground are brought up through that narrow tube back to the surface and reunited with family and loved ones before being handed over to the health care team for transitional care after their ordeal.

This morning the scene made me think of the Lazarus story -- the part after he comes out of the tomb and Jesus turns him over to his friends and says "unbind him and let him go." And through the "marvels of modern technology" we're all getting to stand alongside that shaft and watch one after the other grateful-to-be-alive man step out of the darkness into the light.

The world hasn't changed in the 70-something days they've been underground. The challenges of poverty and oppression, political differences and ideological divides, family issues and health problems they left behind are still going to be there. But not today. Today it's all about the gift of life. Of hope. Of family. And today -- because of the marvels of modern technology -- we are ALL part of that family. The human family. And we rejoice as we see one after another of our brothers brought back up to safety. Out of the darkness into the light.

Let's pray to be given grace to remember these moments of shared joy and global community the next time we encounter the issues that challenge and divide us. No matter what our differences -- theological, ideological or political, our gender, immigration status, sexual orientation or gender identity, our economic status or class privilege -- we are part of the same human race that God sees as a beloved human family. And for the last few hours we're been given the grace to see through the glass of our differences a little less darkly. To see 33 men we've never met and never will as our brothers. And that is something to rejoice and be glad in.

Alleluia. Alleluia.

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Posted By SUSAN RUSSELL to An Inch At A Time: Reflections on the Journey at 10/13/2010 08:09:00 AM