While checking out at a grocery store recently to reached into my pocket and took out my coin purse to get some change. As I open the coin purse my “acrylic” “bobble” fell onto the counter. The clerk asked me what it was, and I told her that it was a little glass bead to remind me of the promises of my baptism.

“That’s neat,” she said. “I was on a beach in Florida and a man was handing out little crosses as he walked along the shore. I put it in my purse. What can it hurt? I figure you need all the help you can get!”

It struck me that her “little cross” was more of a talisman … a lucky rabbit’s foot…though it must be noted that it was not too lucky for the rabbit!

My little glass bead reminds me that I do not “belong” to myself (I Corinthians 6:19, NLT) Contrary to what the culture around me says, I am not the boss of me. Nor are you. Rather, we are interconnected. This is what Jesus was getting at when he told what has become known as the parable of The Good Samaritan” in response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” John Donne spoke to our connectedness in his Meditation XVII. “No man (sic) is an island, entire unto himself (sic)…each is a part of the main.”

My glass bead, my baptism, reminds me that I am adopted and loved by God and a part of something bigger than myself. So are you. And that is a glimpse of grace.