We Need Each Other! by Linden Malki

God, creating living creatures, from the smallest single-cell creature to human beings, made them to multiply—to become colonies or organisms or herds or families, and communities, tribes and nations. In the early days of God reaching out to mankind, we see Him encouraging the people to learn from Him how best to live together in harmony. Our history is a continuing saga of people gathering and warring, cooperating and attacking, loving, hating, and barely tolerating each other. We see this in the political world today, where people find others they can agree with and identify others that they don't trust. Even those who believe in God have their differences in what this means—some people develop their image of God in a very exclusive and specific belief, others are willing to tolerate almost everyone, and everything between. We even see God Himself in different ways, even though the one common factor is that He is unique—but even the uniqueness is defined differently.

I have had two experiences recently that illustrate our need for community. On January first, a person was found deceased in a house fire south of Winchester in Riverside County, who appears to have been my kids' cousin. The house belongs to my husband's sister, and her son had lived there and managed a weekend swap meet on Winchester Road. He was one of 35 living cousins, of whom 29 were at the memorial service last Saturday, some of whom had come from long distances to be with the family. My husband's family are from Lebanon, and there were folks there whom I hadn't seen in some years, including cousins and inlaws and extended family connections. While the occasion was unwelcome, I have learned that the opportunity to connect with relatives and friends is of great value.

The other is the Friday evening fellowship event last night. It was a good opportunity to see people that normally attend different services on Sundays, and also people who may not have ever been to a service here or anywhere. The church historically has always been called to gather in the Name of Jesus, whether in large cathedrals, underground meeting places, villages and cities from small to large, homes and storefronts and chapels, to share and teach and encourage each other in the life we have chosen.