Dear Friends in Christ,

On the podcast Cultivating Place, Tanja Hollander spoke of planting a garden along both sides of the river that separated the towns of Lewiston and Auburn Maine. 

The people of Lewiston and Auburn, though they lived in separate towns, shared the faded prosperity of their industrialized past and the ravaged landscape of their post-industrial present.  

They also shared the trauma of a mass shooting that had happened in 2023.  

Tanja is not one to quote scripture, but her story reminds me of what Paul writes in his letter to the Romans: 

We know that the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together

As a way of acknowledging shared pain, Tanja helped Lewiston build a garden that was a gift to the people in Auburn.  In Auburn, she and her helpers built a garden for the people of Lewiston. 

As Jesus suffered on our behalf, so are we invited, as Christians, to share the pain of others and stand with those who must discover the resilience they need to live another day.

What gift can we give to those who are suffering in this troubled world of ours?  Our prayers, our attention, our concern?

How can we, out of our own pain, create beauty for others?

Faithfully yours,

Rebecca