Romans 12: All My Relations
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In Christ we, though many, form one body,
and each member belongs to all the others.
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The Lakota have a traditional saying: mitakuye-oyasin—all my relations. It's a phrase that says all life is interconnected, and we all need that connection.
Native people all over America have adopted those words as their own. It means Amen at the close of a prayer. It is a warm greeting and a fond farewell--a reminder that we are all related.
Native people have always believed that every living thing was related. The deer, the eagle, the trees, the fish, the grass—all living things are part of one great family.
Outsiders scoffed at this idea. How can anyone believe that we are related to a blade of grass?
On February 28, 1953 researchers in Cambridge England discovered an engine inside living cells: DNA. In time we came to realize: all living creatures ARE related. The difference between pond scum, a mighty redwood tree, a blade of grass, and a human being, is nothing more than a few adjustments of the DNA code.
We are all related. At that moment in King’s College there were no Native people present to say we told you so.
We soon learned that all human beings shared a common DNA ancestry. We are all one people. But we also learned that all living things are more alike than different. Every cell of our being bears witness to this.
All my relations.
As human beings we tend to think of ourselves at the peak of creation. But there is a deeper truth written in every cell of your body. We are all related. Our actions touch every living being. Life is interconnected, on loan to every living thing from the hand of one Creator.
People may be the only part of Creation that forgets this. Over the past few decades we have learned that trees in a forest communicate with each other. When trees are attacked by insects or microbes they warn other trees. The forest calls up its defenses to fight off the attack. And it is not only oak trees warning oak trees. The roots of the forest allow all the trees to communicate for the good of the group.
Listen to the trees. Mitakuye-oyasin.