The overarching idea of the sermon yesterday was that all of us are ‘Soul Mates’ with one another, in the sense that each of us, in our heart and soul, reflect the image of the heart and soul of God. We are more than just a collection of individuals. We become part of one another when we live in relationship to one another. We become a more complete picture what it means to be part of the human family when we recognize our innate interconnectedness. As I mentioned Sunday, it reminds me of the South African idea of Ubuntu, which was introduced to the West by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu describes the concept this way: "Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language. It speaks of the very essence of being human... [In Ubuntu], you are generous, you are hospitable, you are friendly and caring and compassionate. You share what you have. It is to say, ‘My humanity is inextricably bound up in yours,’ for we can only be human together."

That is such a powerful truth! We are created for relationship. We are created for community. We are not created for independence but for interdependence. After all, none of us enters life alone or on our own. We each are born into the world literally tied to someone else. You were born physically connected by a cord to your mama! Maybe that should tell us something. We need each other - and not just when we are children. We’re not designed to be in this life alone.

Elsewhere, Tutu also says this about Ubuntu: “We say a person is a person through other persons. We don’t come fully formed into the world. We learn how to think, how to walk, how to speak, how to behave, indeed how to be human from other human beings. We need other human beings in order to be human. We are made for togetherness, we are made for family, for fellowship, to exist in a tender network of interdependence.”

We are all part of the same human family, made in the image of One God. We are soul mates.