Gathering A Group of Women

“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. 

Herman Hesse

For years I gathered with women to study scripture. It seemed forbidden in the past because there was a notion that false doctrine could be taught if a group gathered outside of a sanctioned church meeting. That was never my experience nor my focus. I gathered when there was a need. Sometimes it came about because I befriended a recent convert and she needed a smaller safe place to grow by asking questions, sometimes I gathered because someone new moved here and a few of us rallied to be a support. sometimes it came about with a granddaughter who agreed to read scripture everyday and send a small video back and forth about what we learned, and sometimes it came about because a sister agreed to talk scripture for a few minutes on the phone everyday. 

Always we gathered to support each other like trees in a forest, roots intertwined and canopies swaying side by side.

"Gather your women" was a flash of light which guided me. 

This year I lost one of my women to brain cancer. A year before her diagnosis we decide to gather once a week to discuss a book together. A slow awakening to God's love was kindled. You can know God's love and yet still be surprised to learn more. In the last months of her life our gathering was by her bedside, her hand in mine. It was holy and sacred. Her tree is gone but her roots are still growing beneath my feet. 

I remember when we decide to meet in person for the first time during The Pandemic. We walked a forest trail together and then rested on a bench overlooking the forest. With masks on our faces we laughed with joy. No other human was in the forest that day. We were alone and filled with our conversation of Heavenly Father, Heavenly Mother, and our friend Jesus.

“Our gathering—all it needs to be is two or three to qualify for Jesus Christ to be in the midst of that and the power that then comes into a room or into a home or into a community because we’ve chosen to live by that doctrine of gathering,” Emily Belle Freeman says referencing the scripture that says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, …  where two or three are gathered together in my name, … behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you” 

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