Thursday Conversation – Aug 12 at 9:00 pm 
Zoom – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7538449219

Everybody has a story.  Everybody is part of a story.

If you watched some of the broadcast coverage of the 2021 Olympic Games, you may have learned the stories of some of the athletes.

We heard stories about the coaches who inspired and guided them; stories about the encouragement and dedication of parents; stories about challenges the athletes faces.  We learned that some athletes relax by knitting.  We learned that some athletes had come to their current ‘sport’ after competing in other sports.

We were allowed to glimpse these stories because the Olympic athletes, at least for the period of the Olympic games, are ‘people of interest’, people whose continuing stories we watch being created as they compete.

But everybody has a story.

Each of us also has people in our life who have influenced us. We have had moments of hope, and moments of disappointment. We have had families who have shaped our perceptions of the world and our aspirations for the future. We have interests and hobbies – whether those be knitting, baking, walking, sketching, reading, singing, photography, barbequing, listening to jazz…or even a sport – Olympic caliber or not!

Most of us have faced or are facing challenges.  We have known grief. We have had to accept a helping hand; we have had to offer a helping hand – or a listening ear, or a caring presence.

We, too, are ‘people of interest’!

We are interesting to each other, and we are interesting to God.  In our living, we may have discovered -or at least suspected from time to time – that God is also part of our story…or that we are somehow part of a story that is God’s story.

Jesus seemed to recognize this interweaving or our stories and God’s story.

When Jesus greeted Zacchaeus, the ostracized tax-collector, he said Zacchaeus was a child of Abraham.

When an unnamed woman touched Jesus and received healing, he affirmed her deep faith and her identity as a child of God.

Jesus met people with a heart open to God’s love and presence, and so met people as companions in God’s story.

We invite you to spend some time with your memories – with your life story – and to reflect on times you have experienced God in your story; then prayerfully imagine your story as part of God’s Story.

Everybody has a story.

We are all part of God’s story.

We invite you to join in TMUC’s weekly ZOOM times of sharing stories and friendship. Everyone is welcome to join us tomorrow morning from 9 to 10 a.m.

TMUC’s ZOOM link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7538449219

By phone:
Meeting ID: 753 844 9219
+1-204-272-7920

We keep you in our prayers,
Carol and Jeff