Saturday Prayer: The Unity of Kindred

“How very good and pleasant it is
When kindred live together in unity,” I read.

Really, God?
How about Cain and Abel (we all know how that ended)
or Joseph and Esau (which, come to think of it, actually did have a happy ending, but only after considerable strife)?
But even Jesus who refused to recognize his mother, his brothers.

“How very good and pleasant it is,” I read again.

Really? God,
How about neighbors,
long separated from blood family by circumstance and misunderstanding?
How about my own siblings,
with our complicated allegiances and misalliances?
How about our nation,
related, but divided along too many fault lines to count?

“How very good and pleasant it is,” I read one more time.

Really. God,
finally I remember that your Words are not always a mirror of what is.
Sometimes, they are a window looking onto what might be,
the vista of what you hope and imagine and expect for us.

These words about the unity of kindred
are not true yet, perhaps.
And the path to unity is rocky, certainly,
difficult to walk.
But you know that the unity of kindred is possible!
And you keep telling us so, over and over,
Until we know it too.

Really, God. Amen.