Sameness and difference

Creating a Home Together

Many human relationships are like the interlocking fingers of two hands. Our loneliness makes us cling to each other, and this mutual clinging makes us suffer immensely because it does not take our loneliness away. But the harder we try, the more desperate we become. Many of these "interlocking" relationships fall apart because they become suffocating and oppressive. Human relationships are meant to be like two hands folded together. They can move away from each other while still touching with the fingertips. They can create space between themselves, a little tent, a home, a safe place to be.

True relationships among people point to God. They are like prayers in the world. Sometimes the hands that pray are fully touching, sometimes there is distance between them. They always move to and from each other, but they never lose touch. They keep praying to the One who brought them together. Henri Nouwen -Bread for the Journey

As I reflect more about Nouwen's analogy of the hands, the more I am drawn to think about the hands are not the same, they meet because they are mirrors and it is a different meeting to a handshake that grasps and grips the other right hand. When a left and right hand meet they are complementary they are different and not the same. Surely this is more about koinonia and fellowship and community and church.