Tip of My Iceberg

They call themselves BCFF–best cousin friends forever. They don’t get to see each other often, but when they do, they’re connected at the hip. What one doesn’t think of doing, the other does. Together they’re a force of nature.

Brooklyn and Sloane, at seven years of age, know what they want. They’re way better at making decisions than I am–I love to hold onto my options. And when they both decided to get their ears pierced, it made sense to do it together.

We gathered at our local piercing emporium–surrounded by earrings, bracelets, headbands, and other blingy things that young girls enjoy. The two took turns in the chair after asking each other who wanted to go first.

Independently, they chose to get their ears pierced. Dependent on each other for the courage to do it allowed them to go through with it.

World culture encourages independence, whether we actually experience it locally or not. But no one is an island; we’re dependent on others for the necessities of life, for helping us be our best selves, and for contributing to what we can’t provide for ourselves.

With Independence Day this week, we’re reminded nationally that we sought to be our own country, free of the attachments to another country that no longer understood what we sought to be. Independent from restrictions that didn’t suit who we were as a nation.

But no one person did this. We were independently dependent on each other, standing together to become individually independent and yet collectively dependent as a nation for the greater good of everyone.

We’re not perfect at it. But we are a nation of immigrants and indigenous people who live under a government that’s not faultless or perfect, but one where possibilities still exist.

Jesus recognized that we live in community, and He encouraged us to care selflessly for others, reflecting how He has chosen to love each of us.

“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you….Do to others as you would like them to do to you.” Luke 6:27, 28, 31

When we live in dependence on others, we need to value each other as God intended–worthy of His love and our respect. Trying to be independent of others because we think we’re better than they are is seeing ourselves through a self-centered lens that makes us think we’re superior to others.

We’re not.

As Sloane and Brooklyn inherently recognized the strength they had together, we need to see in our own lives how connecting with others makes us better, stronger, more resilient.

Independently dependent on others in Jesus for the good of all of us.