A Two-Bracelet Day

Today is, I think, a quietly happy day for the Anglican Communion--especially for those of us who are technically members of one constituent member church, but who live and work and have our being in another one, the relations between the two being shaky:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2014518,00.html

It does not seem to be the outcome (even if a temporary outcome) that some people expected or hoped for, but I think it is the right, good and joyful one. The work isn't finished, but it is moving in the direction that I think is pleasing to the God that all in our communion profess to love and serve. Probably to the God that a lot of people outside of this communion profess to love and serve as well. Working together through difference, rather than refusing to do so, seems spiritually more right than cutting each other off. Especially when the differences are deep, I find a greater integrity in trying to work together, even imperfectly, than in self-righteously excluding ourselves or others from the important conversations.

And so, today I wear two bracelets. The one on top was a gift from my Anglo-Celtic-Canadian-Muslim friend, who has been a bright star in my universe for 26 years. She gave it to me at a dark, faith-challenged time in my life, as a reminder of 'the links to the Divine we share'. I wear it almost every day. The regular, familiar 'three short, one long' pattern of the links reminds me of the opening motif of the Beethoven 5th Symphony--as well as reminding me of the links to the Divine, and of my links to a good and faithful friend. It is a sign of steadiness and reliability, and those things are always a comfort.

More recently, a different, newer friend gave me the bracelet in the lower part of the picture. There was no symbolic message expressed along with the gift, as there was with the other bracelet. But if humans are anything, we are beings who try to give meaning to those things and events in our lives that aren't furnished with explicit significance.

And so the less-regular, funkier, unpredictable bracelet has become a reminder to me of the unpredictable nature of how God works in our lives, both as individuals and as members of wider groupings.

There is beauty in both, and it does me good to remember that. Especially on days when the things of God go in unexpected directions. And it is good to remember that the predictable and the quirky can complete and complement each other.