We live in a very frakish world. Today, we speak more loudly than normal, hoping to drown out the voices of others. We have divided ourselves into a tribal mentality. If you are not with me, then you are against me.
There is not discussion or middle grounds of discernment. Families and friendships are being torn apart by our stubbornness and egos. What happened to finding a common ground? The Scriptures says that God created us all in God's image and that image is love, but how much love do we see around us now? Jesus said that his goal was that "all may be one." We are very far from that vision and ideal. What can we do to bring those ideas and vision back into our lives?
I am always astounded by the news programs when usually at the end, they come up with something for last. The last thing they show is something that isn't negative, like the rest of the news. I used to look at the news this way, "And now for news of fresh disasters." And I haven't been disappointed, yet. But, there was a news item that I saw that gave me hope.
You remember the story of the young, female police officer who entered what she thought was her apartment and seeing a stranger, shot him to death. At the end of the trial the court was hearing victim statements and the last one to be presented was from the brother of the deceased. At the end of his statement, he said that he forgave and that he loved the police officer and wondered if he could go and give her a hug. Everyone was shocked and after a second plea was granted permission.
The female officer ran into the arms of the brother and they embraced for quite a while. Then, another unusual incident occurred – the judge went down and hugged the officer too. During the hug, the judge heard the officer ask if she could be forgiven and the judge gave her a Bible and read from John 3:16. When the story broke, newscasters had trouble trying to figure out what to say. This had never happened before, especially with a judge.
In subsequent interviews, the judge, a Christian as was the deceased family members, spoke about love and forgiveness. They lived their faith and the world didn't know how to react to it. To me, all I thought was, "oh, the humanity." We need to live our faith more and more now-a-days and demonstrate to all the separated tribes that there is another way: love. How thankful are we for each other? How privileged are we that we live in relationship? How thankful are we that we all live in God's love. It's time for all of us to step up and speak up so that all humanity may know how much everyone and everything is loved by God our creator. How will you show the heart of your humanity, today? God bless you all.
