Thursday, May 3rd:
A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.
That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world. Nobody can say: “I make God visible.” But others who see us together can say: “They make God visible.” Community is where humility and glory touch.
Henri Nouwen
For further reflection…
Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we may no longer suffer disgrace.” Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate. The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah. They laid its beams and put its doors and bolts and bars in place. Uzziel son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired the next section; and Hananiah, one of the perfume-makers, made repairs next to that. Shallum son of Hallohesh, ruler of a half-district of Jerusalem, repaired the next section with the help of his daughters. The Fountain Gate was repaired by Shallun… he rebuilt it, roofing it over and putting its doors and bolts and bars in place. He also repaired the wall of the Pool of Siloam, as far as the steps going down from the City of David… So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty two days. When the others heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.” – Nehemiah 2:17; 3:1,3,8,12,15; 6:15-16