the good news is… together, the impossible is possible

Surely, This Must Be It 

Everyone has a job. I wash the potatoes, filling the sink with
slivers of potato peel. You brine the turkey, hovering by the
oven all afternoon. Someone sets the table, taking care to fill
a vase with asters and marigolds, sprigs of holly and shoots
of evergreen. We play music while we prepare. “What The
World Needs Now is Love”¹¹ comes on. We can’t get it out of
our heads. We whistle along to Dionne all afternoon. And
eventually, the doorbell rings.

You’ve invited the neighbors, the grad student who sits on the
second row at church, the widower in the choir. We add seats
to the table. We go around the room and share one thing
we’re grateful for. Eyes well as we create a laundry list of
beauty. The kids get squirmy, but we’re grateful for that too.

And then we eat! We scoop whipped potatoes and crisp
green beans with fresh garlic. We pass the bread basket,
leaving crumbs all over the table. They are tiny reminders of
communion in our midst. And at the end of the night, when
we walk our guests to the car and carry sleeping children to
their car seats, our neighbors say, What a holy moment it all
was. Surely this must be what heaven feels like. Surely we
can create it together.

Poem by
Rev. Sarah Speed

11 “What the World Needs Now is Love,” lyrics by Hal David, music by Burt Bacharach (Imperial Records, 1965). Dionne Warwick recorded the song in 1966 on her album, Here Where There Is Love.