Remembering back to when I took my now 36 year old daughter to Disney World in Florida, when she was 9 brings back a very fond memory. We were in a pavilion where we rode a boat from the beginning to the end. There were all types of dolls and displays representing people from all over the world and the entire time they played the song, “It’s a Small World After All!”
With today’s technology I think we understand much more then we did back in the 80’s, how being connected makes the world seem much smaller.
I have met and made a lot of friends on Facebook from all around the world and it has broadened my horizons to say the least. I feel very blessed that God has taken me out of my little world and I didn’t even have to leave the comfort of my home. Though, I really wouldn’t mind traveling to meet some of my new found friends on their turf. ~Smile~
Yesterday, a friend in the UK (United Kingdom, England) was posting about the heavy rains and wild winds she was experiencing. She was afraid she was going to lose her garden—that’s how bad it was. My heart went out to her because I know how hard she works on her garden and I have been blessed to see pictures of how lovely it is in the spring and summer from pictures she posted last year on Facebook. I felt very connected to her as we wrote back and forth about her dilemma.
The United States has been hard hit the past couple of months with devastating floods and tornadoes and it is one thing to turn on the news and see houses leveled and towns completely wiped out or under water but it’s something else to see pictures posted by my Facebook friends to show what happened to them or in their hometowns. It becomes more than mere news, it becomes real because I feel connected to them.
One day as I was watching a newscaster talk to a farmer in Texas about the drought and how it affected the corn crop (there was none) I felt connected because a Facebook friend in Texas had been requesting prayer for weeks about the drought. And I also realized how the lack of corn was going to eventually affect me on the east coast. This farmer also had cattle to feed—corn is used in their grain. Corn is in so many of the foods we buy. Not only does this translate into higher food prices, but also a possible shortage of certain foods. It is a small world after all.
Just as we can look at things happening across the ocean or across our own country and feel disconnected because it’s not happening to us, is the same way we as Believers can be in our church or communities.
Many churches here in the city of Philadelphia are no longer churches of the community—because, the congregation mostly lives somewhere else. They drive in for services and drive out to go home. They are not connected to the people in the community very much. We also like to have church with each other and not those around us. Our women’s groups have retreats; go to shows, luncheons and so on, for each other, but you might be hard pressed to see this same group of women having something for the women in the shelters or low income housing that is in the same neighborhood as their church. Why? Because we as human beings have a tendency to live in our own little worlds if we are not challenged to reach out and expand our horizons.
Maybe it’s time to become more connected to people around us. The song “It’s A Small World After All” is trying to show us that though physically our world is large, when we are connected it becomes much smaller. But when we live in our own little world, we are just occupying a little space in a large world. Does that make any sense? I sure hope so.
I guess the question of the week is…”How Big/Small is your world when it comes to being connected to others through the love of our Messiah?”
Love & Hugs
Ponnie
Thursday: Sasha Brown
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