Family Day: A Gratuitous Gift

By Mollie, member of the Brooklyn community and former missionary in Romania

The Brooklyn community recently put together a “Family Day,” to which we invited some close friends who have children. We gathered on a Sunday afternoon and each family came with a small dish or dessert to share. It was simple: we filled our plates and chatted while we ate. Then the children gathered for some fun, competitive activities organized by a couple of the community members, allowing the parents some time to relax a bit and catch up with old friends (or get to know new ones). Time seemed to fly by, and the event that we expected to last a few hours lasted nearly six! It was impressive to see just how happy everyone was to be there, and to recognize the thirst we have for communion and friendship, which seemed to be quenched a bit by this simple gathering.

There was one young girl there who I’ve come to call my friend in the past months. I’d hoped to see her there, but only managed to start chatting with her later in the day. Soon after we started talking (she was just telling me that she needs a new book to read) her dad came to tell her that he was leaving with her brothers to stop at the book store before going home, but that she had the option to stay longer with her mom. I thought she’d surely want to go get a new book, since she was just telling me that she had nothing to read, but instead she decided to skip the book store to spend some extra time visiting with me! It moved me to see her make that little sacrifice for the sake of spending time together, a sacrifice that pointed to a deeper need in her (one for friendship), and made me see again my own need for something gratuitous.

I think for each person there, having had a year with much isolation made even more precious the opportunity to take a breath of fresh air, to just be, and to enjoy the gift of friendship. There was a great sense of gratuitousness and communion that made that day truly restful.