"It's a Small World...But I Wouldn't Want to Paint It"

Image via Wikipedia"It's a small world...but I wouldn't want to paint it."

That's a quote from Steven Wright, the comedian who also gave us, "I spilled spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone."

But, he's right. It is a small world...and it's getting smaller and smaller and smaller as our electronic devices get us more information from all around the world, as, every day, we can find out how many persons died in Iraq and Afghanistan or what the stock market did, or which high school basketball player had the best play of the day. It's not that our lives are instantly made better by this information, but it does make the world smaller. We can look into the joys and burdens around the world in record time, celebrating as persons rise up against oppressive governments (Iran) and responding with money after disaster (Haiti).

Yet, every so often the world surprises us on a very persona level. That's what happened to me yesterday.

But it started a couple of days ago...Monday.

Monday, October 4th was my childhood friend's birthday. I had not been in touch with Dave _____ for 27 years. He was a good friend of mine growing up in New York. We played baseball in his backyard with balls hit over his house being homeruns and balls that broke windows being immediate outs. We were at each others' birthday parties and slept over at each others' homes. I remember parties held in his basement and dreams of forming a rock band together. We were very good friends.

But then I moved. My dad was transferred to Indiana. And, in the days before facebook...and even before e-mail...I just lost contact with the guy.

However, every October 4th I'd remember that it was his birthday and recall some of the great memories I had of our time growing up together.

But, this year, I didn't just remember him...I was determined to see how he was doing and talk to him. So, I contacted some other friends on Facebook and one of them found an address and a phone number for his parents and I called his parent and left a message and the next day Dave called me and left a message and then yesterday we talked on the phone and followed up with each other by asking the questions, "So what have you done with your life?" and "What's happened over the last 25 years or so?"

And it was great to follow-up.

But, that's not what makes this a post about the small-ness of our world. Though conversation, I found out that Dave went to college. His college roommate married a woman by the name of Joanna ________. Joanna was my "girlfriend" when I was five years old. We lived across from each other and our parents are still in contact. So, how did that connection get made? It's a small world.

But, there's more. Dave's father just recently retired from a job at a college in New York. I have friends up here in Alaska who just left that college and came up here on their Alaskan adventure. Did they know Dave's father? Yes they did. In fact Dave's father had been a mentor for one of their friends. T

That's an interesting connection. It's a small world.

Now, these are just the latest of "small world" incidents that have come to me. In my family, we famously talk of a childhood trip to a National Park out west where, we sat down for lunch one day and realized that the person at the next table was our pediatrician from back in New York. And, I also love telling the story of riding up an elevator to a control tower display at an aviation museum in Virginia and seeing, on the elevator, a kid who had come to some of my Girdwood, Alaska youth group events -- 5000 miles away.

So, what is God trying to tell us through these "small world" events? Perhaps he's just trying to remind us that it is a small world and that the connections that run between us are many and varied and, when something good or bad happens around the world we aren't as distant from it as we might first be lead to believe. This world-wide community we have is much more of a community than we might first be lead to believe.
It's a small world.