Your photo sits on my mantle
Among my most treasured pictures
Of happy family moments,
And yet I don't know you.
We never met.

Your steady gaze seems to look away,
Dark eyes, dark hair, strong features.
Holding a baby in your arms,
You look weary, but determined.
You look sad, but proud.
What were you like?

The baby you're holding . . .
One of your seven?
Which one was it?
What were they like?

It seems unfair that
You died so young.
You had so little,
But left so much.

Do you know the web you began to spin?
The strands you added
Connected to the one begun before you.
What does it looks like now?
It's beautiful and vast,
Intricately woven,
Delicate yet strong,

Strengthened in places
once broken and weak.

I never met you
Yet we share a connection
To a woman
Whom you called Daughter
And I call Mama.
She was five when you died.
Her time with you was short.
Her memories of you are few.

So I keep your picture close.
It comforts me.
The life you lived is unlike mine.
An entire era separates us,
But our connection remains
And our story binds us.

My questions about you are many.
The answers are few.
Yet one thing is certain:
Your web remains strong.
Your spirit lives on.
Your journey continues,
As my questions remain,
For now.

For I know some day
The questions will be answered,
Your mystery explained,
Much like God's plan for us:
Mysterious and complex,
Revealed to us in time,
With a beautiful symmetry
That only God could design.

Like your web,
Begun with simple strands
That expanded over time,
From which your story emerges
In a new generation
.

From that I draw my faith in God's plan for me
I pray that my web grows like yours:
Beautiful and vast,
Delicate yet strong,
Strengthened in places
once broken and weak.

So now your image sits day after day
In a place I look too often,
Next to the image of my daughter.
Golden and fair,
Sitting with a woman
Who bears your resemblance
Whom you called Daughter,
And I call Mama.
Yes, it makes perfect sense:
Your web,
God's plan.

Discussion Questions

• What plan do you see in the connection between you and your relatives?
• How does the remembrance of your elders continue to direct your life?
• What kind of web are you weaving for those who will follow you?
• Are there differences between your view of relations and Courtney's? What are the similarities?

Scripture

2 Timothy 1:3-7
1 Timothy 5:8

Prayers

Opening
Gracious Creator, giver of all life, we thank you today for the gift of simply being. How often we take our lives for granted, and yet there you are to provide the very foundation of our waking and acting. We pour out our thanksgiving for this gift. We realize that nothing is guaranteed in life, least of all our lives. How wonderful and amazing is the gift of life. May the living of this day be a reflection of our thanksgiving. May our blessing infuse all we do and say on this day. May we be moved to lead our lives as a reflection of this great gift. Amen.
(From Worship & Daily Life, Discipleship Resources, p. 29)

Closing
Through Creator God and God's son Jesus Christ, we celebrate our histories. We acknowledge our history, we connect with our histories, and if necessary, we pray for the forgiveness of our history. We pray for reconciliation with our history. Empower us to speak to an elder man as a father, to an elder woman as a mother, to a younger man as a brother, and to a younger woman as a sister . . . all with absolute purity. Through the Father, Spirit, and Holy Son, we pray. Amen.

Courtney Freeman-Fowler, a Muscogee Creek, lives in Shawnee, Kansas, with her husband Mark and daughter Piper, with the "yellow hair."