Dear Beloved of Trinity,
It’s good to be home!!
This summer in Michigan, I heard the most wonderful story. A dear friend of ours, who is 94 years old, said: “You’re never going to believe what happened to me about a month ago.”
His daughter had received a phone call from a woman who began with: “I think you might be my half-sister.” Instead of shock or anger, the news was met with curiosity and kindness. The woman, now 72 years old, explained how she had always felt a bit different—like she didn’t quite belong in her family. She knew she wasn’t adopted, yet something always seemed off. After her parents passed away, she decided to take a DNA test. What she discovered changed everything.
Through the miracle of DNA, she learned that her father was not her biological father. Long ago, some 72 years earlier at Yale, her mother had shared a romance with my friend. When her mother returned home, she never told him she was pregnant. He never knew he had a daughter.
This news came at a profound time in his life. A year or two ago, he suffered a serious heart issue and nearly died. He has been struggling to regain his health. With tears in his eyes, he said, “Now I know why I’m still alive. My daughter was looking for me, and I didn’t even know I had a daughter.”
His daughter, now accomplished and well known throughout the country, had already found financial, cultural, and societal success. Yet what she longed for most was not achievement—it was to know who her father was, to know where she came from, to know the rest of her story.
This September, they will finally meet in person. They’ve already spoken over Zoom, marveling at their similarities—their gestures, tone of voice, even their facial expressions. Her half-sister said without hesitation: “She is certainly Dad’s daughter.”
Digging a little deeper, for many people, there is a restlessness in the heart, mind, and soul. They may find success, recognition, or status, yet it can still feel as though life is lived in shoes that don’t quite fit, in a sweater that itches, or through glasses with the wrong prescription. Something feels off. Something is missing.
Through God’s love, however, things are made right. We discover who we are and whose we are. We remember that the soil from which we came is sacred. Our DNA is holy. We belong to God, who has given us a home, a family, a place of belonging and love.
It calls to mind the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John:
“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
In a world that often feels unsettling and uncertain—when we feel out of place or unsure of where we fit—God reminds us that we have a true home. We have a place, a belonging, and a being that is grounded in love.
And that … is the best story ever told!
Peace and Blessings,
Paul
