All My Relations

"All my relations."

Those are the words that we each uttered as we emerged from the Sweat Lodge upon the conclusion of the time of prayer.  As I see it, that phrase speaks to our connection with everything and everyone.

I am thinking about that phrase in a special way because today is March 16, which, for me, is totally unlike the other 364 days of the year, because it is the day God graced me with the gift of life in this world.

Even though I'm celebrating my birthday today, this occasion, like my life as a whole, is really not about me:  It's about all the relationships that fill it.

I thought about this a few days ago when I attended Chicago's Birthday Celebration at the Chicago History Museum.  Brian Hopkins, Alderman for the 2nd Ward, mentioned that unlike with people, Chicago's birthday is not necessarily defined by a moment when it came into existence, but when people living near each other recognized they shared a piece of geography and decided to formally form a community.  Indeed, as I see it, relationships are integral to our experience as people.  And that's what makes this birthday notable while we're in the midst of Illinois's Bicentennial Year, and I celebrate the state where I was born and raised, truly making me "Illinois Born, Built, and Grown".

In my own life, I have so many relationships, and it would probably take numerous blog posts to cover them all.  They all started with the family in which I was born and first received and shared in love, as I continu e to do to this day.

As I got older, it started to include an array of classmates at school and friends, with new friends each time I started a new school, most especially in college and graduate school.  Then there came co-workers with each job.

And then there's church community, where I have built many meaningful relationships, especially at Ascension and St. Teresa's.  Being in Church community reminds me that while God has given me life, He enriches it with His Gift of Eternal Life, which we experience even now.

I think of this when I hear the words of the final verse of the hymn "O God You Search Me", based on Psalm 139:  God forms our lives in the womb of our mothers, and then makes us new as we grow in relationship with Him.

Those who know math know that 3 cubed, 3 to the power of 3, or 3x3x3, is 27, which is my age as of 1:15 PM CDT this day.

This number 3 makes me think of the Holy Trinity, with the Three Persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in perfect harmony with one another.  We experience the effects of the Trinity in the relationships we have with one another in life.

Christian theology notes that the Love between Father and Son results in the Holy Spirit, much as the love of husband and wife results in a child.

While I'm not a parent, I know that my love for God has resulted in ministry to His people, especially the youths I teach in Religious Education class.  The relationship I have with my students is so important in my life because in it, I am called and empowered to model the kind of love Christ showed us in pouring out His Life for us, when there was no way we could repay Him.  I volunteer to teach RE not to get payment, but as a way to pour out myself for my students, so that they may be transformed and then pour out their lives in service to others.  How glorious it is to see this progression, and it's what drives me to pour myself into teaching RE.

So as I celebrate my birthday, I am also celebrating all the relationships that God has made part of, and have enriched, my life.

"All my relations."