The most fascinating story I have heard in a long time is the story of Oprah Winfrey’s long lost half-sister. According to what I could gleam from watching the reveal episode on the Oprah show, her long lost sister who had been given up for adoption at birth had been looking for her birth family for several years. Having been rebuffed by her birth mother who is also Oprah’s mother, a local story on television led to her and her children discovering she was the half-sister of one of the most famous person and richest women on Earth. This discovery placed a tremendous burden on them because of who Oprah was. So when they found out in 2007 that they were related to Oprah they swore to secrecy and tried for years to make discreet contact. Because of the way they handled it, she is now reconciled to her family and her children can know their heritage.

I don’t know how Oprah treats her family because it is not something I have heard her discuss much on the show. I do know that she retired her parents, although her Dad an independent sort of man still continued to work. I don’t know the story of her siblings or extended family. Yet if we judge how she treats everybody else, we can assume that there are a lot of perks which comes from being the only living sibling of Oprah. Patricia, Oprah’s sister lived a difficult life until meeting her family. While looking in vain for so long to find her family, her birth mother lived less than ten miles away. Every day she saw her sister on television doing great things, and blessing the lives of countless people, but did not know her. It turned out she was also less than ninety miles away from her “kinsman redeemer”.

I have not been able to get this story out of my mind since I heard it.
This story in so many ways reminds me of our own story. According to the Bible we have been estranged from God our Father at birth because of the sin of Adam. The reality of sin brought sickness, poverty, trouble, destruction and death into our lives. Man through his own efforts is in constant activity to reconnect to his relationship with the Father but without success. When our relationship with our heavenly Father was still strained, our elder brother overcame the world and changed our circumstances. Yet despite this we are still estranged and in lack because despite how close he is to us, we don’t know him. He came that we might have a full and meaningful life but we still live outside the benefits of being family.

Oprah gave an account of her Sister’s search for her family and then her efforts to keep the secret and then make contact for over three years. There are two things which comes to mind; first the Father’s promise that we would find him when we searched with all our hearts. More importantly I think of what John the Baptist, Jesus and the Apostles preached. “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Simply put, the kingdom of heaven is within reach. All that God has for us is as close as the story of Oprah and her sister suggest, but also like their story what stands in the way is ignorance. So now like Patricia we know, what our heart yearns for is within reach!

“It’s just a thought!”

To my daughter Judith

EF

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