My granddaughter Molly, age 7, decided she wanted to make bracelets for all her family.  With the exception of her Dad, she measured each wrist, asked what colors each would like, and made custom bracelets for each person.  They were individualized, yet all the same style.

Travis, the little guy, age 2, was thrilled at the gift his oldest sister had made for him.  (See photo above).  My daughter said she had never seen him so excited about anything.  He ran immediately to show his Mom, wanted to kiss it “goodnight”, then couldn’t wait to put it back on in the morning.  The next day he would come up to his Mom and click their bracelets together saying, “Cheers!”.  (Don’t ask me how a 2 year old gets that!”).

Well, today their Dad got surprised for Fathers Day with his matching bracelet.  Because he is the Dad I know him to be, I had NO doubt that he would put it on immediately and proudly wear it to church today with the rest of the family.  It was interesting, however, that he looked down the pew in worship and saw another young Dad wearing a bracelet.  Only the other guy’s bracelet was made out of pipe cleaners!

All this “family bonding” by wearing matching bracelets made me think about our world and how we are meant to be “one family”.  We are all God’s children!  We belong together.  Yet, there are divisions among us that lead to separation, pain, and even violence.  Thinking about what happened in South Carolina last week….the young man, so full of hatred, almost changed his mind when he attended the prayer service and felt so welcome by those people of a different color.  He must have, for one brief moment, felt he belonged to the one big family of all God’s children.  But then, what happened?  We must all ask ourselves….what, when is the MOMENT for each of us to choose love?

nk