Really finding the real person
Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely. Psalm 139:4
Read Philemon 10—16
Let me sift through the fellow believers I know. Some of them I talk with more than others. I know them well. Our thoughts run along similar lines. Even when we disagree, we are familiar. Our lives have grown into friendship, and friendship is one thing I always look forward to renewing. In friendship we, familiar as we are, meet as though there is always more to discover. The result of this is that there would likely be others I’ll manage to rather neglect. In fact, I would admit I barely know them, though I may see them just as often. I never expect that behind that familiar face I may find a life story. A walk with Jesus that is all their own. A step into faith that is just as vibrant as mine has been. Why not ask them their story? Why not listen? It could be like Philemon receiving back his slave, not as the same old slave, but now as a dear brother and friend.
Loving God, heavenly Father, you do not see as I see. You do not see one a slave and the other free; one a Jew and the other a Gentile; even one a man, the other a woman. I mean, you do see these things because you know us intimately and you love our particularity. I know you delight in each one. But, I mean, you are not blinded by what blinds me. You see each person as your beloved child. The story of each life the marks of your particular unfolding grace. May I find you in each person, and in the process find them more truly, and love what I discover.