I have a thing about community.

It is something I crave, yet long to share with others and wrap around them. I seek it out, and find it everywhere, in the biggest gatherings to the smallest nuances of everyday life. It brings us a sense of purpose, makes our goals and dreams tangible, gets us through the toughest of times, and makes beautiful moments even sweeter. As I reflect on the last month or so, I reflect on some of the ways God has brought community to light, and I am so thankful.

Community is family and friends gathered to cheer together, cry together, as once a little waddling tot now gracefully walks across the football field as a high-school graduate.

Community is a team working together discussing their personal and professional goals, visions, and dreams.

Community is driving down the main street of town as US flags adorn the sidewalks and streets, reminding us what Memorial Day is all about.

Community is sharing the harvest from your garden.

Community is hearing the familiar voice of one your favorite baristas, leaning into that morning coffee order for support and energy, swapping motherhood battles, and sharing in celebrations, all between the ordering and the pickup window.

Community is having to schedule play dates, days and weeks in advance because there is an understanding between working moms, that while we would love to be able to do fun things on the whim, that’s not our reality. There are schedules to balance, activities to work around, family obligations, and so we must schedule our fun. We get it, and we fight for it. So it’s pizza and cupcakes in the park between school and t-ball, and cheering on our friends as they run the bases of their last game of the season.

Community is a place where a young taekwondo student can find himself amidst a class of advanced yellows, greens, blues, reds, and blacks, but they all practice together, pursue the belts they are excited to test for, and recognize the belts they’ve worn that brought them there. While others may kick harder, faster, higher, they see he is there doing the best he can, and partner with him, even when it slows them down or lacks the challenge they are looking for.

Community is families showing up to school each day to ensure our kids receive the education we want them to have. It’s filling cars to capacity to take kids on a field trip, donating snacks and treats for their lunches, bidding high on a fundraising auction when you otherwise wouldn’t, because there is so much more at stake than winning the bid, you’re helping form and change a child’s life. You read, craft, plan, donate, clean and offer yourself in any way possible, because you see the Holy Spirit moving in this school.

Community is bringing our families together to play in the sunshine, knowing that some of the most valuable lessons are learned on trampolines and down in the creek.

Community is supporting and shopping local.

Community is spending a Saturday morning cheering on your family during their last soccer game, knowing the painful road it took to make it to that last game and celebrating presence over goals.

Community is found in the lost. When someone important to us goes home to be with our Heavenly Father, and we look down and weep over the gravestone, it’s the moment we look up, and see there are others who have lost as well, who hurt, and have stories to share, that we realize though we have lost, we are not alone.

Community is going back home after all those years, and it smelling just the way you remember it, the creek of the floorboards greet you just as they did back then, the rough pavement reminds you of bare little feet from years ago dancing atop those little stones and putting on a show.

Community is finding the smiling face, the warm embrace, the clink of two wine glasses shared, even when you are far from home.

Community gathers around the crackle of the fire pit, the smell of toasted sugar in the air.

Community is crossing paths years down the road, and seeing how your everyday, changed someone’s world entirely.

Community is just two girls in their cowgirl boots, knowing they would pick those boots over anything else, no matter the outfit.

Community is two generations worlds apart, laughing over Cheetos and finding common ground.

Community celebrates arrows piercing the bullseye, and the proud display of the catch of the day.

Yes, I have a thing about community.

These days, it can be so easy to be caught in the defeat of comparison, the trap of loneliness, or lost in the transition….but community…gets us through. Community helps us to see all that we have, when the world is trying to tell us we don’t have enough.

Friends, if you are feeling anxious today, lonely, full of doubt, worried, I encourage you to consider the quiet communities you have been a part of, perhaps without even realizing it. All you have to do is scroll through your camera roll, glance through your text messages, or look at your calendar…you might be a part of more than you think. We were not created to be alone, so God gave us community with Him, and with each other. Community is truly a blessing in our everyday, let us be intentional today about seeing what amazing work we get to be a part of.