Today I appreciate community. Thank you, God, that we are more than just a speck on the metroplex map. We have places to connect in and invest our lives and that is a blessing.

Thank you for our neighborhood community. I’ve loved meeting neighbors at the pool in the summer, passing and greeting other regular walkers on the trails around the golf course, and I am grateful for the quiet but friendly people who live all around us and watch out for our house when we are away.

I’ve enjoyed this local community too.  I adore the little café on Ballard St and its amazing owners who gave our daughter her first job and still give us free onion rings, the library that we frequent for so many school resources, the rec center where we exercise. And Ibrahim, the bank teller—he holds a special place in my heart. He was the first person to recognize me in the community and call me by name. “Hi Hope,” he always says. “How’s your day today?” Thank you, God, for Ibrahim.

I’m grateful for our home schooling community too—all the moms and kids that intersect regularly through co-ops and classes, the curriculum swaps, advice and support.

It’s been such a delight to be a part of our choir community. We’ve spent at least one night a week and many Sunday mornings together for twelve plus years now. Our kids have grown up together. I don’t know what would have become of us here without it. It was a gracious provision that you provided. Thank you.

And the sweetest community ever is our faith family. Thank you for our home church. Even though one thousand miles separate us ten months a year, it is those folks who are the most precious, treasured group of people I’ve ever had the privilege to love. What a gift it has been to share life, to live exposed– warts and all- struggling together to grasp how long and wide and high and deep is the love of Christ.

Thank you, Father,  that in communities you make a place for us to know and be known. I am grateful.