"The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."
I've not thought about this passage of the Bible for many years. Until recently I never really had a need, perhaps, to reflect upon it. The older I get, the more I travel, the more I travel, the more I experience differences in people. Its those differences, to me, that make this world such a marvelous place to live. Its those same differences that cause such chaos and discord, for some unknown reason. I've never been one to understand disliking or distrusting someone due to a difference between us. I guess you could say it was just the opposite. I embrace differences and hope that I can learn something from everyone that crosses my path. I know it was God who designed us all and in that design there is great purpose and plan. Jeremiah 29:11 even tells us that very thing. So if that is the case... why are people so afraid of the "differences" between us instead of being fascinated? Why are people so quick to judge another because their skin has a different shade, language a different dialect or a faith that is different?
I go back to the beginning where it all began in Genesis. "Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image..." the word doesn't say a single image, but it says in OUR image. Have you ever wondered about that? Have you ever wondered about the sovereignty (supreme power) of our God? He didn't have a single image in his creation, he created all of mankind. I'm going to let you just ponder that for a bit. No hurry... just think about that.
So from the very beginning God planned for our differences, from our skin, to our hair, to our shape, etc. Our entire outer shell is a masterpiece created by God himself ...in...our...likeness. We awe over masterpieces around the world that artists have created and yet when it comes to the greatest masterpieces ever sculpted, we want to find faults and failures. Why?
I can't change the world nor can I change my nation as I have no God like powers. If I did though, for just a while, I would make the entire world blind. People would have to engage with one another without knowing what the other looked like. People would have to come together to help one another because they would need one another. Neighbor helping neighbor. What was that scripture in the beginning... “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." That one language, my friend, is love. Love would cover all things because it would grow out of the place where people came together for the common good of one another. Love would flow because we no longer would place value on appearance or differences but value on the very hearts that beat within. "Then NOTHING they plan to do will be impossible". Luke 1:37; "For with God nothing is impossible". If for only a while you could put your blinders on and not focus on what divides, but focus on what binds... this world would change and God could see all that he had made, and say it was very good.
I have grown so weary of seeing the negative images via media of one type or the other. The hate that continues to grow is appalling from all sides. People rioting and protesting, pointing fingers and saying such horrible hate-filled words. But then for a few moments, it all stopped. The hurricanes happened. Media changed from the riots and racially fueled hatred to people pulling together because their neighbor was drowning. Posts went viral, Pray for Florida... Pray for Texas... Pray for my Family began to fill the screens. It wasn't pray for one race of people, one culture, one specific religion... it was pray for them all. It was during the storms that we all saw each other for the first time again, not through our own selfish colored glasses, but through the lenses of our neighbor and the pain they were feeling. Why does it take a tragedy for us to see clearly? To see beyond the differences and through the lenses of love and compassion?
Can you take your biased glasses off for a while to allow yourself to go blind? Can you reach out your hand to the one who may seem the most different from you and embrace that God created you both in his image? Can you remove labels, stereotypes and past hurts to allow healing to begin? Can you allow the healing rains of the "man-made hurricanes" to wash away the ugly and restore the beauty that God created? Can you look in the mirror and tell yourself, its time to make a change starting with the one starring back at you?
Under His Wings,
Heather
