We Are Never Alone
My children want my help sometimes, and other times, not so much. I remember being a teenager and young adult myself. At times, I thought I knew everything. I didn’t need help because I was just so darn smart. Truth is, I needed to find my own way. I needed to stretch my wings and prove to myself and my family I could fly. I assume that is what is happening with my own children as well. It just seems so different now that I’m the parent.
Human beings need help. We need community, and we need to rely on one another. At Pentecost, we reflect on Jesus sending to the Church a helper, the Holy Spirit. God interacting with us in this manner means we are never truly alone. We focus most of the time on the Spirit of God as the assistance we need, and we do need Him for sure. However, since it is that very same Spirit that turned us into “Church” from a band of people looking to carry on after Jesus’ ascension, at Pentecost we gained more than divine help: we gained each other.
Today, the Church needs help in a profound way. We need to lean on the Holy Spirit to blow through the Church with a profound renewal. But we cannot forget that we have been given each other to lean on as well. We are a gift to each other, and together with the Spirit’s help, we are the Body of Christ here on earth. We must be strong and stand for one another. If we do that, this Pentecost will bear fruit that will be with us for many Pentecosts to come.
—Tracy Earl Welliver, MTS