Only Connect!

I was watching an episode of “Joan of Arcadia” when I first heard the E.M. Forster quote “Only connect!” I forget the full context, except that Joan was trying to make her mission from God more complicated than it really was. Sometimes God asks us to do big, scary, things. Sometimes it’s more it’s a little more straightforward.

This fall I got to reconnect with a family I used to babysit for years ago. By chance our paths crossed, and I re-met my two girls, who were now nine and eleven! They were so old. It was lovely and awkward at the same time, because of course I remembered them better than they remembered me. But then the older sister told me something special. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and I often made up silly stories for the girls. The older sister told me that she wants to be a writer, too! And not only that, but she always remembered my stories as one of the things that encouraged her to be a writer. I’d had no idea.

In my life I’ve moved between countries, neighbourhoods, and schools. I meet interesting people all over the place, some who I keep in contact with, and some, like at camp, who I only meet for a week. And that’s OK. Some people, God puts in our lives for a little while only, but that doesn’t mean that relationship was a waste of time. I’ve also realized I can become friends with people I used to dislike. (If you’re curious, ask former Director Gabrielle how we first met!) This is especially hard. I am not always good at swallowing my own words. But when God helps me connect with people I haven’t seen in a while, or never thought I’d see again, it reminds me that God wants to give us as gifts to each other. And what a great gift it is! Forster’s quote ends with these words: “Only connect…and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.”

--Kelsey Hutton, former Assiniboia Bible Instructor