The New Wine Press vol 25 no 8 April 2017 | Page 8

Precious Blood Companions
A Season
of Grace
by Vicky Otto, Precious Blood Companions Co-director
One of my favorite scripture passages that I always
associate with Easter actually comes at the end of the
Lenten season. The passage is from the prophet Isaiah,
“Do not remember the former things, or consider
the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now
it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make
a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to
give drink to my chosen people, the people whom
I formed for myself so that they might declare my
praise” (43: 18-21). I think that the reason this passage
speaks to me is that it has such anticipation of all the
good things that are possible with God.
But with the anticipation of good things we still
have to work for it. We all know that the creation
process is hard work for humans and sometimes even
anticipation can be painful. St. Paul wrote in the letter
to the Romans, “We know that all creation is groaning
6 • The New Wine Press • April 2017
in labor pains even until now, and not only that but
we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, we
also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption,
the redemption of our bodies.” As I reflect upon this
sense of anticipation and the good things that God
has in store for us it seems a fitting description of
where we stand today as Companions.
During the creation of Gather, Send, our vision
statement of what we hoped to be in the future, we
heard from Companions that they wanted younger
Companions and they wanted people from different
cultural traditions. As we move closer to making these
dreams a reality we have come to understand that
with anticipation there must be change and growth
for all Companions. In his book Inclusion—Making
Room for Grace, Eric Law wrote about these chal-
lenges: “By rejecting the simple, exclusive boundary