Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord. Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
~Hebrews 12:14-15
During the flooding which overwhelmed the residents of Columbia this past week, people worked together to help each other. Entire communities reached out to those who suffered. First Responders worked themselves to the point of exhaustion and still pushed on, because we became a single community of people.
Never once did I hear anything about race, beliefs, gender, preferences or any of the other irrelevant barriers WE have put in place. For once, we realized that we all are part of the community of humanity. People pitched in with manual labor; jumping right in to help with the clean up. People opened their bank accounts and pantries to help provide for those who were without. People gave and gave and gave!
True, there were some who sought the spotlight, there were also some who became greedy, and even some who took this disaster as their opportunity to take what wasn't theirs. But overall, people banded together; prayed for and with each other, accepted each other, cared about each other.
If God intended for us to be all the same, He would have stopped with Adam or Eve. But God created us to join together as community, showing love to others regardless of our differences.
My question and challenge to ALL of us is this: When things return to normal, will we continue to see each other as a community or will the irrelevant divisive issues return?
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