Many of the greatest joys for Awake of living life together in Seattle’s Aurora area have been those moments where we – as members of the Church that unfortunately too often views itself as having everything to give and nothing to receive – find ourselves on the receiving end of so much goodness and kindness and hospitality.This past week I turned 30. In honor of my birthday, a young woman named Stefanie, who runs a neighborhood grocery store with her boyfriend Ron, made me cookie – a HUGE cookie. Before she handed it over to me, she said, “I made it in the shape of a cross for you!”
Then she invited me to look at what it said: “Nice.” My heart warmed.
I said something like, “Aw, it says ‘Nice’, but then she told me to read the rest.
“Nice… perm.”
I busted out a deep belly laugh. She laughed too. (for the record, it’s not a perm – it’s all natural!)
Moments later, I invited anyone who wanted to join me in eating the huge cross-shaped cookie.
One by one people came forward. Breaking, taking, eating.
As I licked the chocolate off my finger tips, I became overwhelmed with gratitude for this delicious moment my neighbor Stefanie was blessing me with – participation in this cookie communion with a pair of recovering heroin addicts, a man who would undoubtably be sleeping on the grocery store porch that evening, and the formerly homeless grocery store owner who quite likely used to sleep in my townhouse down the street while it was undergoing construction a few years ago.
I give thanks to God for these moments – which are great in number – of receiving from my neighbors.
My friend Andy also just wrote a story of gratitude on the local neighborhood blog I run. We’re hoping that as we keep telling these stories, our neighborhood will wake up to the reality that we belong to one another and are blessed beyond measure when we live in reciprocal relationship with one another just as we were made to do.
How very special You must be Ben, what a great story!
I long for these moments of communion and am grateful to partake of the story through you. Thanks for the updates! Keep up our great work. We are grateful to partner with you in the small ways and continue to stand behind you in support and prayer.
Tim