“Dear Sister Shull”

Not long ago someone addressed an email to me as “Dear Sister Shull.”  It made me happy, and I thought about why that might be.  I have never met the person who wrote me, but we surely have our differences:  different gender, different ancestry, different skin color.  His words, though, put aside the things that separate us.  Rather, they remind me that we are all related.

I have a faint memory of a day when I was about three years old.  I had slept in a crib in my parents’ room up until that day.  Now, suddenly, it was time for me to sleep in a regular bed in my sister’s room.  I remember the new twin beds being carried up the stairs and furniture moved around to make space for them.  I felt bigger and more in control of things but also a little bit scared.  Now I wonder how my sister felt about giving up her own space for a sister who was ten years younger and a bit of a pest.  If it bothered her, I don’t remember her complaining or making me feel unwelcome.  Margie wasn’t like that.  She treated me gently, taught me good things, shared a few secrets and listened to mine.  She even let me try on her heels and wear a dab of her perfume.  Margie was the best model I have for what a sister can be.  She made space for me.

Writing a blog as Sister Shull, I want to make a space with words, a space where we find we are related after all.  I want to share with you the books I have been reading, some poetry I love (and perhaps some that I have written), and reflections on life events.  And the space is there, in the Comments section, for you to add your thoughts.  Please keep it clean and courteous!

The one who called me Sister Shull doesn’t know that his words brought a special joy to me that day.  And the reason for my happiness was the way he made a space for me to become a part of his life.  I already know that we share a belief in our status as children of God.  His words tell me that our relatedness is more significant and more obvious than our differences.  We are family.

It reminds me of a poem written by the great Brethren hymn writer, Kenneth I. Morse, called “Strangers No More”.  The refrain goes like this:

For we are strangers no more, but members of one family;

Strangers no more, but part of one humanity;

Strangers no more, we’re neighbors to each other now;

Strangers no more, we’re sisters and we’re brothers now.

(Set to a tune by Dianne Huffman Morningstar; published in Hymnal: A Worship Book, no. 322)