As living, dynamic creatures, we are constantly connecting, on a physical realm and on a spiritual one as well. If we were to think of connections like a phone headquarters center, with thousands of small lights lighting up every second someone calls in from all over the globe, we might start to understand how many connections we really have within ourselves, that we simply don’t pay too much attention to.
True, some might seem irrelevant, like a clerk we met for a few moments at the post office, or at some other stop in our busy day. However, each and every one of our connections is important and relevant, even that of the simple shop worker at the grocery store down the block.
We are all born in specific places into certain families with the exact family members who will make up our biological family. It’s written that before we are born each one is asked who they want their parents to be and we choose the ones that we have today. It is also written that we see all of the troubles that we will face throughout our lives, and we say OK to that as well. Obviously, after arriving on planet earth we forget all we agreed to and at times have a very difficult time getting through life’s challenges. However, during very trying moments this thought can be of some comfort.
I recently heard a story of a mother who had gone through her share of challenges, and whose son who was 18 and about to get married.
This mother had no contact with her child since he was 5 years old, due to a terrible divorce. I heard this fact and my heart skipped a beat. What mixed emotions this mother must have. On the one hand she is meant to be joyous and filled with happiness and gratitude to the Almighty for marrying off her child. And on the other hand this mother has nothing to do with her child, or does she?
We are full of connections, just like that telephone switch board that has lights going off every second in everyone’s minds and days. But how does that busy switch board connect to this pained mother and her distant son? After all they haven’t had any connection for almost 13 years. Or have they?
As a mother of many children, thank G-d, I couldn’t help but think deeply into this lady’s sorrow, and how she must feel not having any connection to a child who is about to wed. Is a connection just physical? Or can we have connections on many levels?
As G-d-fearing Jews, we all have a connection to Hashem and yet we don’t see him, or hear him, nor can we feel him.
A connection is what we make of it. It’s what actions we take to stay connected. It’s the thoughts we think and the feelings we let in, that make up this connection.
We all want to actually feel and see whomever we are in a relationship with. However, a higher form of connection is like that which we have with Hashem. If we connect to the people and events in our lives on a more spiritual level and not just on the physical realm, we will find that we are connected even more than we could have ever imagined. In the higher form of connection, this mother and her son, are completely connected. Just as they were when the child lay in her womb 18 years ago and they were connected in the highest physical sense of the word. No one can take that connection or feeling away from either one of them. The distant son, today, might not feel that connection he had while he lay so peacefully in his mother’s womb so many years ago, however the connection is eternal. And the mother who might feel pained and saddened by not being physically part of her son’s life right now, is forever connected to her child no matter how she feels in the present moment.
Sad moments come and go and so do joyous ones.
Our work in this world is to always stay connected to a higher source which is Hashem. Surely G-d will never leave us, and will always love and stand by us even when we seem far away. Just like that mother will always love and stand by her son, despite the distance that seems to stand between the two today.
May G-d connect us all through love happiness and health to one another and to Hashem that we may serve Him in the best way possible.