Amelia stood in the booth next to me singing Jesus Loves Me at the top of her little lungs. We were waiting for our pizza and her power nap in the car and the sugar from her lemonade had officially kicked in. She and Thomas are practicing to sing together during our family lunch following the upcoming baby dedication for their brothers, Timothy and Ezra. Her mom looked at me and said with a laugh, “she’ll do this today and on the day of the dedication, she’ll be too bashful to sing above a whisper!”
We frequent this spot for lunch on Sundays but today was especially crowded. We took a booth inside instead of our usual patio table. When we squeezed out of the booth to head to the restroom, I noticed smiles on the faces of several older couples as we passed. Most tables were filled with families or groups of friends absorbed in conversation, or like us, wrangling little ones who largely missed nap time for the day and needed wide open spaces to run more than food at the moment.
Most children are naturally engaging. They haven’t developed self-awareness so they aren’t conscious of stares or looks one way or the other. They don’t hide their true feelings behind a mask of propriety. If they’re happy, they show it. If they’re unhappy, you know it. There’s no guessing what’s going on behind a blank stare, and if they’re rolling their eyes, they’re usually trying to be funny. By the teen years that’s a completely different story. What surprises me is how many people choose not to respond to them in public, walking by their little waves and smiles like they don’t exist.
We’ve nearly forgotten how to be neighborly. Whether it’s because we’re too busy running from here to there or we just don’t want to be bothered, we’ve become adept at insulating ourselves. Think about your neighborhood. Who lives on your street? Do you know their names, their kids, their pets? How many mutual friends do you share? Do you smile and wave or stop to talk routinely, or do you look down to avoid eye contact or head for cover when you see someone approaching? Our children learn from our habits and mannerisms far more than is usually comfortable. If you want to see yourself in action, toddlers make excellent mirrors.
We’ve created or allowed far too many walls to go up between ourselves and other humans on the planet. Think for a minute. I won’t make a list. Yours may sound different from mine but it’s not hard to come up with a dozen or more. There were similar disparities in Jesus’s day. Jew and Gentile. Slave and free. Roman citizen or occupied territory. Rich and poor. Jesus spent a great deal of time teaching unity and leading by His example, often criticizing those who thought more highly of themselves than they should, especially those in positions of God-given authority. Though He spoke of sheep and goats, good crop and weeds, good fish and worthless ones, Jesus makes only one designation, one dividing wall that matters for eternity- believer and unbeliever. (Matthew 13,25)
This makes most Christians incredibly uncomfortable. If we haven’t felt guilty enough for thinking of anyone in these terms, we’ve been accused of doing so. This is one tactic of the enemy of our souls that has been successful for far too long. Who are you to judge? Self-righteous holier-than-thou Bible thumper. Those are the kinder old-fashioned remarks. Believers have been shamed into live and let live rather than following the Biblical command to speak the truth in love. We have resigned souls to hell for fear of creating division, hurt, or rejection.
“Christ himself is our peace.
He has made Jews and Gentiles into one group of people.
He has destroyed the hatred that was like a wall between us.
Through Christ we both come to the Father by the power of one Holy Spirit.”
Ephesians 2:14, 18 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/eph.2.14-18.NIRV
“Their heavenly destiny raises a social barrier in the here and now between them and unbelievers. Their experience of alienation in the culture can be traced to their shift in values. Their horizontal discomfort comes from their vertical commitment or, better, the end time promise that awaits them.” (Shreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, 82.)
When I read this commentary statement from first Peter recently, I was reminded of an illustration of the cross depicting our relationship with God through Christ on the vertical post and our relationships with everyone else on the horizontal crossbar. Every other relationship hangs in the balance, dependent on right relationship to God in Christ Jesus. Every social barrier, any alienation, or relationship discomfort stems from my vertical commitment. When I am truly aware of the end time promise that awaits me as a believer in Christ and willing to acknowledge the opposite end for every unbeliever, I could not possibly feel heartless for sharing the Truth of the gospel with everyone, regardless of the personal cost.
“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace.
In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.”
[My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]”
John 16:33 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/jhn.16.33.AMP
““Just remember, when the unbelieving world hates you, they first hated me.
If you were to give your allegiance to the world, they would love and welcome you as one of their own.
But because you won’t align yourself with the values of this world, they will hate you.
I have chosen you and taken you out of the world to be mine.
If I had not come and spoken these things to the unbelieving world, they would not feel the guilt of their sin, but now their sin is left uncovered.”
John 15:18-19, 22 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/jhn.15.18-22.TPT
“This [is what] I command you: that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another.”
John 15:17 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/jhn.15.17.AMP
““He is the God who made the world. He also made everything in it. He is the Lord of heaven and earth.
He doesn’t live in temples built by human hands. He is not served by human hands. He doesn’t need anything.
Instead, he himself gives life and breath to all people. He also gives them everything else they have.
From one man he made all the people of the world. Now they live all over the earth.
He decided exactly when they should live. And he decided exactly where they should live.
God did this so that people would seek him. And perhaps they would reach out for him and find him.
They would find him even though he is not far from any of us. ‘In him we live and move and exist.’
As some of your own poets have also said, ‘We are his children.’
Yes, we are God’s children. So we shouldn’t think that God is made out of gold or silver or stone. He isn’t a statue planned and made by clever people.
In the past, God didn’t judge people for what they didn’t know. But now he commands all people everywhere to turn away from their sins.
He has set a day when he will judge the world fairly.
He has appointed a man to be its judge.
God has proved this to everyone by raising that man from the dead.””
Acts 17:24-31 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/act.17.27-31.NIRV
“What I received I passed on to you. And it is the most important of all.
Here is what it is.
Christ died for our sins, just as Scripture said he would.
He was buried.
He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as Scripture said he would be.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NIRV
https://bible.com/bible/110/1co.15.3-4.NIRV
“But all that is recorded here is so that you will fully believe (and never stop believing) that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you will experience eternal life by the power of his name!”
John 20:31 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/jhn.20.31.TPT
“I believe that you and I
Are in the right place at the right time
God called us by name and He doesn’t make mistakes
I believe we were born to shine bright
In a dark world that needed some light
Don’t have to be afraid
Maybe we were made for these days”
Jeremy Camp
These Days
Big Daddy Weave
Heaven Changes Everything
Phil Wickham
This is My God
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