Sowing Seeds of Unity

In the past year, I’ve heard a great deal about a divisive spirit at work in our country.  If you’ve watched the news, you’ve, no doubt, heard about it, too. A number of people seem to have fallen prey to an “us” and “them” attitude toward others.  Stories abound of people saying and doing hateful things to people with whom they differ. 

I don’t deny these stories are true, but I want to bear witness to another movement I’ve observed lately.  Again and again, I have crossed paths with people who have gone out of their way to treat me with courtesy and respect.  Many of these people are different from me ethnically, religiously, or socioeconomically.  I have sensed, too often to write off to coincidence, how these very special people are refusing to accept that we must pick up sides and oppose each other.  They have seized opportunities to be my friends and neighbors. 

Linda and the Over-sized Print

Just a few days before Christmas, I was standing in a shopping center parking lot.  Leaning up against my “massive” Toyota Corolla was a framed print I had just picked up from the store, a Christmas gift for Linda.  What I had not considered, in buying this print and having it framed, was that it was too large to fit into any of the four doors or the trunk of my car.  I called my son, Andrew, and asked him to come to his dad’s rescue with his SUV.  While I waited, with numerous persons walking by, looking curiously at the man standing with a framed print beside his car in the parking lot, a lady with a very different ethnic heritage than mine approached me.  She had been waiting in her car for a shopper to emerge from the store when she observed my transportation dilemma.  She said, “Sir, my car is a bit bigger than yours.  I would be happy to take this picture to your home for you.”  I explained that my son was on the way, but that I was touched by her very thoughtful offer.  As we chatted, I learned that she was a woman of deep faith who can see the steeple of SABC from where she works.  I thanked her for being a Good Samaritan to a stranger whose taste in Christmas gifts is bigger than his car. 

Don’t underestimate the power of small expressions of respect, courtesy, concern, and helpfulness to build unity among people.  God’s people can and should lead the way in changing the spirit of the times and bringing people together.