Answering That of God

by Mary Linda McKinney

You know the Bible verse in the first chapter of Luke when Elizabeth, pregnant with John, greets her cousin Mary? Elizabeth doesn’t seem to know yet that Mary is with child. The Common English Bible says this, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”

When trying to describe my time at Friends General Conference Gathering this year, what came to me was John leaping for joy to be near Jesus. It felt that almost everyone I met was aware of  the Inward Spirit and was seeking kindred Friends to commune with. I’ll share two encounters that stand out for me. 

The first happened as I was walking the path back to my dorm. A man was a few paces ahead of me, heading the same direction. Another person was coming toward us carrying a banana peel. I said to them, “Planning to give someone the slip?” That person was utterly bewildered, even when I explained the joke, so I apologized and walked on. The person ahead of me, though, found it funny so, laughing, we fell into step and began talking. By the time we’d walked the 200 steps to our dorm, I believe we both experienced the “leap of joy.” We sat and talked about our experiences of Spirit and Friends and worship for a long while. 

The second occurred the next morning as I sat on the low wall in front of the dining hall eating my breakfast. A woman sat next to me and within a moment of introducing ourselves, we were talking with our hearts open and curious. 

I don’t know if I’ll ever encounter Herman or Claire again (I hope so!) but I know I shared something precious and life-giving with them and I am grateful. 

The folks who attended my pre-Gathering workshop and those who joined me for the afternoon School of the Spirit sessions, too, offered their spiritual experiences and curiosities as gifts and received the gifts of others with gladness. 

Marty Paxson Grundy describes the experience of “answering that of God” in her 2002 Friends Journal article, Authority:

…answered that of God within me. We use the verb now in a rather narrow sense of giving information in response to a question. At the time of George Fox, who used the phrase we so easily quote, there were broader implications. They also said that a key answers to the lock. They fit together; there is a relationship. So when we speak of answering that of God in someone or everyone, it means that the Christ within me connects to the Christ within thee. There is a fit, a relationship.

This is how it felt to me. That I already was in relationship with each of the dear Friends  through Spirit within each of us. We were strangers who were connected and became friends “in That which is eternal.”