By now the tears were so large that my favorite rug, shaped like a heart, was unraveling from the inside out, threatening to come apart in two pieces. Finally I could stand it no longer.
Tuesday — Election Day — I laid the rugs on my bedroom floor. Then I lifted the lid of my great grandmother’s sewing box and fished around for a long curved needle. The decades-old white surgical thread — tucked inside during my father’s days of running an Army surplus store — seemed tough enough to do the job. Last, I grabbed my mother’s scissors.
Sitting on the floor, I threaded the needle and got to work, slowly and painfully sewing the broken seams back together. The stitches were big and loopy, and I had to figure it out as I went. After an hour, I proudly laid the rugs back in their designated spots. I was so inspired, I mended a tear that was beginning to pull apart the braided rug in the living room as well.
Six hours later, my husband and I drove to the high school gymnasium in our little town and cast our ballots in one of the most divisive presidential elections in our country’s history. Early the next morning, I was as shocked as anyone at the outcome of the big race. Against my better judgement, I checked Facebook and discovered a lot of hand-wringing and despair. But wherever we stand on the political spectrum, there is good news for all of us.
In a country so torn, we have an incredible opportunity to bring peace and goodwill to our neighbors and communities. We can sit back and watch the tightly sewn braids of our democracy pull further apart, unraveling our hearts from the inside out. Or we can gather the tools we’ve inherited from our forbearers and do the hard work of stitching it back together.
We, each of us, are responsible for what happens next. But we are not alone.
You see, while the U.S. presidential election is held only once every four years. People of faith get to cast their ballots every day. Instead of wearing stickers that say, “I voted today,” our stickers might say, “I prayed today” or “I read my Bible today” or “I loved my neighbor today.”
Every single day we get the chance to vote for sacred living, for serving others, for growing in our relationship with Christ, for praying that God’s will would be done in our homes and communities and nation and world. Best of all, we are all invited to be part of it — regardless of which candidate won.
Meadow Rue Merrill writes and reflects on God’s presence in her everyday life from a little house in the big woods of Mid-coast Maine.
Her memoir, “Redeeming Ruth,” releases in May 2017. Find her at www.meadowrue.com
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
