Day Three: Interactions

Relationships are more interactive than we sometimes think. We tend to see them as one on one -- my relationship with my wife or husband, with my son or daughter, with this particular friend. It is more complex than that. We are more than observers of the interaction between those around us. We are part of it. A good bit of the joy we experience in the people we care about is seeing them with each other. The joy is more than getting to be with one of my sons -- it is seeing my sons see each other or my daughter see her brothers. The joy of relationships is found in watching my two grand-daughters hug in reunion or play together enthusiastically. It is found in listening in on conversations as we walked the neighborhood streets to see the Christmas lights. Or laughing as the girls dressed poor Cole in a tutu and tiara while he patiently obliged.

C. S. Lewis remarked on the death of his friend Charles Williams, that one of the things he would miss would not simply be Williams' jokes, but watching Tolkien respond to Williams' jokes. Christian community is like that. The joy of community is not just in our being with Christ or our being with a believing friend. It is found in seeing our friend relate to Christ in their own life.

I have thoroughly enjoyed a day of interactions. Our children were together. And their spouses. And their children. And some cousins. And the grand-dogs. I got to be with each of them. But I also got to observe the interactions between them. There is joy in that.