As part of my volunteer gig at one of our local Fort Collins hospitals, I have been given a Special Badge. Here is a picture of said Special Badge, just to prove I’m not lying:

The thing that is so cool about my Special Badge is that it gets me into Special Places. I can approach lots of doors inside the hospital that have those big, red signs outside that say, RESTRICTED AREA… AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY, wave my Special Badge at a box on the wall and WHOOSH! the doors swing wide open, inviting me in. It is as if they are saying, “I see you, friend. Come on in.”

Or something like that.

It is an awesome power… one I must be careful not to abuse. I have not ever tried, for example, to use my Special Badge to enter the surgical suites, or the medication rooms inside the Emergency Department where I am assigned. Mind you, I am not even sure my Special Badge has the necessary coding to open those doors, but I’m not going to try and find out.

So, yes… opening these previously sealed doors inside the hospital is pretty cool. But I decided the thing I enjoy most about being the holder of this Special Badge is its unspoken message. The message that says, “Russell, you belong here. You are one of us.”

As I reflected on that message, I thought, “This is not just a message I enjoy hearing inside the walls of the hospital. I believe this is a message people everywhere yearn to hear regularly spoken to them.”

It is why we gravitate toward groups… whether of the healthy or the unhealthy kind. It is why we post our opinions on the different forms of social media. It is why we sing in choirs. It is why propane-powered firepits were invented. All of this is so that we can experience the warmth and comfort of BELONGING.

When we look back to our primeval past, we see that BELONGING is hardwired into our human DNA. Our Neanderthal forebears hunted wooly mammoth in GROUPS. They huddled around campfires and picked nits off one another TOGETHER. I mean sure, there was always that one moody caveman poet off in his hut on the outskirts of the community, doing whatever it is he did over there. But he was the exception to the more common practice of communing.

You might disagree with my premise and say all that cozy togetherness was primarily about safety. After all, a sabertoothed tiger would prefer to attack a lone wanderer instead of a whole group of people. But I would counter-argue that there is something deeper going on here. Something more foundational and organic and – dare I say it? – something more divinely designed at work here.

If we can take scripture and the ancient church scholars at their word, we can see that The One Who Created All That Isis the very embodiment of togetherness. Three-in-One. Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, all mystically wrapped up in a singular entity. The Divine Dance of Connection.

Looking out across the complexity of creation it sure seems that relationality is at the heart of everything. Night exists in relationship to day. Masculine exists in relationship to feminine. Ethereal in relationship to ephemeral. Solid in relationship to vaporous. Republicans in relationship to Democrats. Small market baseball teams in relationship to the big, bad bullies in the large markets. You can’t have the one without the other.

So, wouldn’t it just make sense that humans are built with the same kind of relational hard wiring?

We have spent trillions of dollars developing technological tools that are supposed to draw us closer together and solidify our kinship bonds (looking at you, Facebook… and you, too, Instagram). And yet, how often have you seen a news report that begins with the opening line, “New studies have shown that loneliness is on the rise around the world and is now considered to be a major health risk.”

Each of us wants to BELONG. But we also need to belong. It is how we were made. But if you can’t find a softball team, bowling league, church, hobby group, book club, or benevolent society nearby to join, just read the following verse and where it says either “Jacob” or “Israel,” go ahead and substitute your own name;

“But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1, NRSVUE).

You will always and forever belong to God. And you don’t need a Special Badge to prove it.

Abundant blessings;