We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing. We gather to celebrate or to commemorate. We gather to console. We gather to demonstrate. A gathering is the culmination of effort and energy. Whenever two or more of us are gathered, there is love. The abundant love of the Creator is reaped when the harvest is gathered. And gathering is a selective process. Even if the farmer uses a massive combine to harvest an entire field, weeds and all. He later separates out or culls only that which he desires. A gathering of friends is a delight. I share ideas, to break bread and drink wine, to welcome one another into the collective space is the greatest type of love. To accept another is to join with them. It is not how they are different that matters, but that they gather with you. A bouquet of roses is lovely, but a mixed bouquet of daisies, irises, delphiniums, ferns, grass, carnations, gladiolas, lilies and evergreen included the grand and the common. Each alone may not be splendid but gathered together they are a beauty to behold.