April is a meaningful month in American history—it marks the season of the year when the American Civil War both began and ended, and Lincoln was slain. Those were the years when the First Universalist Society in Franklin was in its infancy and its leading light, Dr. Oliver Dean, founded Dean Academy (now Dean College). It was a divided and wounded country then, and the backdrop of the Civil War provides us with the opportunity to reflect on our shared past of struggle, and to pray for and imagine a hopeful future.