We invest a lot of energy in differences.
Differences are an easy way to circle the wagons and close ranks. People like them don’t belong here.
These pictures look pretty similar, at first. Wristbands, arms, hands together.
On the left, the hands of the FREEDOM TOUR team on the day we climbed Raton Pass. On the right, the kids at the Home Of Hope in New Delhi.
Born in middle-class America. Born in a brothel.
Part of a cycling team. Part of a group home.
Hands that have always been free. Hands born in slavery.
Citizens of America. Citizens of India.
All kinds of differences, reasons to see people like them. We can help them, feel sorry for them, pray for them, even be thankful we’re not like them. But they’re them, not us.
Or we can see what Jesus sees. Hands together, arms, wristbands. Us, part of the same circle despite being half a world apart.
All that energy we waste lugging around our differences is really about fear. We’ve listened to politicians, media pundits, and (sadly) religious types with an agenda of wagon-circling. They trumpet the dire consequences if those people are allowed into the circle.
Jesus suggested that freedom is found in opening the circle, in seeing the two pictures through His eyes.
Same hands. Same wristbands. One circle. One freedom. One Hope.
It’s pretty easy to let go of the differences when it’s a bunch of harmless little kids. Tougher when it’s folks who challenge my ideas, worldview, or safety. But that’s exactly what Jesus did. He drew one big circle, wrote the word LOVE in it, and told us everyone gets included.
Seems impossible.
HOPE changes what’s possible.
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