Life's Great Equalizers.
Lucy to Charlie Brown: "I love mankind. It's people I can't stand."
Here's a news flash. Brace yourself. People are different. I live in a town that has dramatically changed its ethnic make up over the past twenty five years. From plain vanilla to Baskin and Robbins, in a typical week I can hear people speaking four or five different languages, just going about my normal routine. And this diversity has an economic side as well, with a widening gap between the haves and the have nots, rich and poor, white collar and blue collar.
And yet, certain life experiences have a way of vaporizing the ethnic and economic barriers that so often divide us. For instance, an emergency room is no respecter of persons. A fire alarm recognizes no class distinctions. A tornado can't tell one neighborhood from another. A flood ruins everything it touches, mobile home or mansion, worthless or priceless. Cancer invades and destroys the human body regardless of the color of the skin or the size of the jewelry. Life deals out the cards and no matter who we are or where we are from or what we have, we must play the cards we are dealt, with no throwbacks or discards.
Sadly enough, sometimes it takes the harshest of circumstances to remind us that we are all in the same boat. It doesn't matter whether we ride first class or coach, we are all on the same journey. We are possessed by the same hopes and dreams for ourselves and our children. And in our darkest moments we all plead and pray and seek the God who alone sees and knows the heart. We search for the God who recognizes only one distinction - family.
"Behold, what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are." (1 John 3:1)
Here's a news flash. Brace yourself. People are different. I live in a town that has dramatically changed its ethnic make up over the past twenty five years. From plain vanilla to Baskin and Robbins, in a typical week I can hear people speaking four or five different languages, just going about my normal routine. And this diversity has an economic side as well, with a widening gap between the haves and the have nots, rich and poor, white collar and blue collar.
And yet, certain life experiences have a way of vaporizing the ethnic and economic barriers that so often divide us. For instance, an emergency room is no respecter of persons. A fire alarm recognizes no class distinctions. A tornado can't tell one neighborhood from another. A flood ruins everything it touches, mobile home or mansion, worthless or priceless. Cancer invades and destroys the human body regardless of the color of the skin or the size of the jewelry. Life deals out the cards and no matter who we are or where we are from or what we have, we must play the cards we are dealt, with no throwbacks or discards.
Sadly enough, sometimes it takes the harshest of circumstances to remind us that we are all in the same boat. It doesn't matter whether we ride first class or coach, we are all on the same journey. We are possessed by the same hopes and dreams for ourselves and our children. And in our darkest moments we all plead and pray and seek the God who alone sees and knows the heart. We search for the God who recognizes only one distinction - family.
"Behold, what manner of love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are." (1 John 3:1)
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