Dear Mercy-loving God:
Thank you for continuing to accept all of humanity into your loving embrace after you placed the rainbow in the sky; it's more kindness and grace than any human being deserves. You have placed diversity in our lives -- the diversity of love, grace, kindness, mercy, and fellowship.
Thank you for all of my being -- knitted and formed in my mother's womb into a marvelous and wonderful creation for you.
Thank you for the religious leaders you have placed in my life to teach their patch of your tapestry to me:
Thank you for Bill Puder (the foremost influence in my mind -- ELCA). Thank and bless Bill for his teaching from scripture that we fight powers and principalities and not the chosen tigers we catch by the tail. Thank you for fighting the tigers we catch to devour ourselves. For this, you have given us in Torah -- Exodus 14:14, "The Lord will fight for you; you need only be still." Thank and bless Bill for teaching me the phrase "go should on yourself" for those who would should on me; through this, he taught me to have my own values based on my child of Godness and not on the shoulds of the world. He taught me to know You and value You.
Thank you for Jeffrey Hupf (Episcopal USA). Thank and bless Jeff for his humility to help me listen to your voice in my life. He was a support to me when others kept trying to turn me away from your altar. He helped me to learn to set my sails to journey for you, even if I found that I was in the belly of a whale -- you were there with me. He helped and supported me while I was learning that I, too, was your Beloved Child of God when the world had me convinced of your hatred for me. Instead, with Jeff, I embraced my belovedness.
Thank you for Bruce Lawson (Independent Baptist/Episcopal-Anglican). Thank and bless Bruce and his family as they are on their continued journey. He taught me to be enjoy being pursued by You. He wanted me to know that You loved, pursued, and desired me. Shelter and heal him in your love. You wanted me to find the monastery in the world and within so did he. Thank you both for it.
Thank you for Stephen Duncan (OCCA). You gave him the heart of a child for play and music. He has helped me to heal without ever turning me away for more than two decades. Even when he mutters in other languages, I can trust Your Stephen that it isn't a curse; You have helped him to heal.
Thank you for my Rabbis (All kinds through the Federation). They have embraced me while I have been healing with You in the temples and synagogues amongst my people -- Your people. They just welcomed me as one of them; they did not let me get lost in the world. You gave them a heart for the Torah and for people. Thank you for Ed Soloman, my first Hebrew teacher. May you warm his heart with the knowledge that I finally read Shalom in Hebrew. Thank you for the other survivors I have been blessed to know as I sat healing with them. You gave them the strength to continue living and embracing life. They have helped to give this to me. Your survivors honored and cared for me. Their respect for me, shown through Mr. Tibor Schaechner and Mr. Simon --- (my apologies as I have forgotten his name) who made it through the Shoah, will never be forgotten. Thank you for Tibor who has always said on sight to me "how are you, young man?" when the medical professionals around me decided that I was too broken to read/work/thrive ever again. He has always been a source of strength and blessing to me. His smile helped me to not only survive but thrive. May you bless his life and his family. Mr. Simon --- always welcomed me to the Oneg tables that he worked to prepare himself. He helped me keep the strength that I needed on days when I didn't think I could go further. You gave him the strength and grumpiness to keep me going. You have made no other people like these two. Thank you for helping me learn that I am Jewish. I love Your and my people, even Ezra Cappell. He's a good person. You blessed me with him before I knew how to understand his desire for Shabbos' joy in the lives of people around him.
Thank you for Dr. Charles Stanley (He claimed Pentecostal -- I'm going with that). You have taught him to say "out of the body, home with the Lord." You have given him a heart to know you more than anything else. You know it is difficult to have been made to survive for my faith and denied through a civil process for other reasons -- to be told "we're working on it" in America by the prosecution. You know that some days it is too much. Thank you for giving him this final assurance in You.
Thank you for Jay Bakker. He is not the others. You have made him to explore Christianity and be saved through grace. You have given him grace; Lord, help him to embrace it. Thank you for his journey of grace such that he can help others with it. You have made him an example of what most others don't want to be and still he loves you.
Thank you for your chosen remnant people. There have been too many to mention by name. You know who they are. They are the ones You love to love me. They are with me even when I don't know them. Thank you for all of the others I have had influence my life for the better; the names are too numerous for a blog. May they all have blessings in gratitude for You.
Thank you for me. May I not be the most reluctant of them all to be in your presence. Thank you for sitting with me in my joys, my pains, my light, my darkness, my sickness, my human health, my oppression, my freedom, my sin, my trust, my love, and everything else with which I have been blessed. Thank you, that even without one, I've never shed the collar. Thank you for being alive still. Thank you for seeing what people would not see, understand, or accept for nearly a decade. Thank you for sitting with me through all of the issues and the blame that was placed upon me by those who couldn't fathom how my life was ever going to work ever again. Thank you for dwelling in me and giving me all that I have.
A Child of God,
Israel Andrew
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